Last night we were cruising on around 60% until four bad boards at the end took us to 52.4%, and 28th out of 74, earning 0.07 BBO points.
I'm sure it's no coincidence the last two rounds were against people playing with Robots. We never seem to do well against the Bots.
Here's one where I could have done better:
Anna has the big East hand. I like her 2NT rebid compared to 3♦. I am quite happy to play 3NT but bid checkback Stayman, to see if there's a Heart Fit. When Anna shows three Spades I decide I ought to play there instead.
3NT (With East declarer) would actually have been an easy 11 tricks.
In 4♠ I got a Club lead. There's no need to risk the finesse. I won the Ace, and discarded a Club on a Diamond. I set about ruffing the Hearts, including ruffing the last one with the ♠Q. This was over-ruffed, and I now have three trump losers. If I'd have guessed to ruff with the ♠7, or threw that last Heart on the ♦, or drawn one round of rumps earlier, I'd have made 11 tricks. 4♠= was worth just 22%, 4♠+1 would have been 75%.
I think my line was reasonable, but looking at the hands afterwards we thought playing the third round of Diamonds is better. It gains if Diamond are 3-3, or the short hand is ruffing with a Spade honour, or if the short Diamond hand is before you then you can over-ruff.
Here's a tough defensive problem for Anna:
My lead of the ♥2 promises four to an honour. When Anna wins her Diamond she has to decide if it's worth continuing Hearts. I think from declarer's play on the first trick (winning the Ace in hand) I can't have ♥KJxx or even ♥Kxxx (declarer would surely have tried the ♥Q on table with Qx opposite Axx or won cheaply with the Jack with Qx opposite AJx), so East can find the Spade switch.
Doing so would have got us four tricks in defence, for 3NT= and 90%, compared to 3NT+3 and 21%.
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