Here's a fun hand from the Monday set with Jeff against the ladies. 

You pick up: 98 / QT975 / 952 / J43

All red, in 2nd.

3 passes to Jeff and he opens 1 Club pass to you.

When deciding whether or not to respond light at the 1 level, I usually ask myself if I'm happy if partner rebids 2NT, particularly in an auction like this when both opps have passed (one of them twice.)  I decided I wouldn't be and passed.

Sylvia balanced 1 Diamond, Jeff doubled, pass to me and I bid 1 only Heart.  Maybe I should have bid 2.

Anyway, it goes pass, pass to Izzy and she tries 1 Spade.  Now I bid 2 Hearts.  Yeah, I think I SHOULD have bid 2 Hearts, what are the chances that the ladies will sell out at the 1 level with about 18-19 high? (if Jeff has 18-19, which is likely.)

I bought it for 2 Hearts (at least this way I got a little more information, but at the risk of letting the opps discover their potential spade fit.)

Sylvia led the King of diamonds and dummy tracked:

AT63 / AKJ / T84 / AK9 (dummy)

98 / QT975 / 952 / J43 (your hand)

Pretty much what we expected.

Izzy overtook the diamond and cashed the diamond jack.  Great, the suit blocked.  Now she switched to a trump.

You've got 8 top tricks, what's your best shot at an overtrick?

You can try the double club hook, or hope the queen of clubs is doubleton, or you can play Izzy for either the queen or ten (you have to guess which) and continue like this:

I drew trumps in three rounds ending in hand, Sylvia pitching a diamond on the last trump.  Then I led a spade up and played low when Sylvia ducked.  Izzy won the Jack and is down to all black cards, so returned a spade to Sylvia's queen and dummy's ace.  I ruffed a spade (Sylvia following, so I now had a 100% count on the hand,) played a club to the ace and threw Izzy in with dummy's last spade as I pitched my diamond loser. 

Izzy was down to all clubs (she had both the queen and ten, so there was no guess.)

How come those hands seem to come up so much more frequently at IMPs than they do at matchpoints?