Early in what turned out to be an ugly set with Jeff against Izzy and Sylvia tonight, this board came up:
I picked up in 4th at favorable:
KJT4 / QJ98 / K54 / Q2
Izzy and Jeff passed, Sylvia opened 1NT on my right.
I recalled the hand with Adam where he had showed the majors on a significantly uglier 4-4 hand than this, and given our great result on that hand (we got a zero when I played him for a little something and jumped to slam off the AK of trumps) I decided to trot out a 2 Heart bid of my own (showing majors.)
It went all pass, Izzy led the Jack of Clubs and I bought this dummy:
85 / 643 / AQ86 / A954
KJT4 / QJ98 / K54 / Q2
I was ticked off at myself for being so undisciplined and noted that 1NT was in deep trouble if I had just dropped a green card on the table.
I ducked the club, Sylvia winning her King and won the club continuation in hand, Izzy parting with the ten (probably from a doubleton, since now the A9 are good.)
All I had to do now was count points. We had 22, Izzy's showed up with 1, Sylvia has at least 15, Izzy might have the missing Spade Queen, but Sylvia must have both Heart honors (it's just conceivable that she opened on a 14 count with her 5 bagger in clubs, but I don't think it's percentage.) Additionally, if I infer that Sylvia probably has 5 Clubs from Izzy's carding, her most likely shape is 5-3-3-2 and so either trumps are breaking, or AK tight is onside.
Unfortunately I drew none of these inferences and played the hand like a complete fish. I played a diamond to the queen and a heart back and when Sylvia played low, I cleverly inserted the 9, losing to Izzy's ten from txx. Not content with turning a cold contract into down 1, after Izzy returned a Spade to Sylvia's Ace and Sylvia returned a Club, I pitched a Spade while Izzy scored trump trick #2 and when Izzy returned a Diamond, I won on the board to play a Heart off, locking myself off the board so that I lost a Spade unnecessarily in the endgame.
This hand illustrates why it's important to remember: a) maintain discipline and b) regardless of how happy or unhappy you are with the contract you're in and how you got there, the auction is over, concentrate on playing the hand to the best of your ability.
