So I got a call from my old buddy Jeff Smith this morning.  Jeff was the ACBL Junior Master of the Year in 1996 and is a fearsome competitor, particularly when teamed up with his regular partner, John Zaluski (who has a couple of COPC titles (with my favorite partner of all time, the late Pierre Treuil) and won a top bracket KO in Gatlinburg (with his dad, Ed)  this year.)  

Jeff wanted me to partner him against Waldemar and Piotr (they're on the same CNTC squad this year) so off we went.

Things started poorly when they bid a 50% slam on the first board but we clawed most of it back over the next 5 boards an IMP or two at a time.

Then came my disaster.

All red, in 1st, I picked up:

KQ9864 / 52 / Q / AT97

I opened 1 Spade, 2 Hearts by LHO, Jeff whipped, 3 Hearts by RHO, I passed, 3N by Waldemar, Jeff whipped, floated to Waldemar who bid 4 Hearts and Jeff whipped again, float.

Jeff led the 7 of spades and this was the flop:

JT53 / J64 / AT986 / 4

So I'm thinking that this is probably a singleton, else Waldemar bid 3N on stiff ace.

Waldemar plays the Jack and I cover.  Then he leads the 8 of clubs and Jeff plays the Jack.

So am I supposed to overtake here?  If Jeff is desperate for a spade ruff, why is he not letting me win the club?  Hmmmm.

So, I let Jeff hold the trick and he switched to a trump.

Waldemar won in his hand and hooked a diamond into my stiff q.

Now what?

Well, yes, I can give pard a ruff and get a diamond ruff and take down 1. But I decided I'd rather return a trump and then later score lots of clubs and diamonds and spades.

Instead of counting I just reckoned that there weren't enough pitches for Waldemar to do everything. Well, Waldemar only needed 1 pitch. He won my trump return, led another diamond up, and guessed correctly to hook again when Jeff didn't split (which was a nice play and our only chance after I slipped.)

His spade loser went away on the ace of diamonds and he ended up losing only a diamond and 2 clubs.

Waldemar held:

A2 / AKQT83 / 42 / 853

Jeff held:

7 / 97 / KJ753 / KQJ62

Technically a trump lead on the go is the only way to beat the hand legitimately but who wouldn't lead a stiff in pard's suit with 2 rags in trumps?

Waldemar needed to play a diamond to the ACE and then a big diamond spot instead of hooking into my stiff queen. If I ruff, we can't stop him from ruffing 2 clubs in dummy. If I pitch, we can't stop him from setting up the diamonds.

A pretty neat hand, unfortunately accounting for virtually their entire margin of victory.  (We lost 9, would have won about 10 for down 1 and lost the 24-board match by 19.)