Just finished a rocky set with Jeff.  It seems like every hand we were on different wavelengths.  We missed a decent game and volunteered 800 into a thin game that only 1 pair bid.

This was another hand we didn't bid the game, but might have (nobody bid it, and it's pretty ugly.)

I picked up in 2nd favorable:

KJ874 / KJ9 / T94 / 32

Righty passed and in years past at these colors this was an automatic 2 Spade bid.  It would even qualify as one of my BETTER 2 Spade bids.  But no more.  Pass it is.

Lefty opened 1 Club and Jeff doubled, a call that means what it means for everyone else except that it also could be a strong NT hand.

Righty passed and now I got to bid 2 Spades.  Seems pretty middle of the road for the call.  It'd be marginal if I only had 4 Spades (since Jeff could have a balanced 15 with a doubleton Spade) but the 5th Spade makes it pretty automatic.

Lefty bid 3 Clubs and now Jeff bids 3 Spades.  I'm up.

3 Spades sounds like a purely competitive call to me.  I floated it.

Lefty tracked the 7 of Hearts (well, if I knew I was getting a HEART lead ...)

Q96 / A852 / AQ3 / K75

KJ874 / KJ9 / T94 / 32

I played low from Dummy and Righty played the Queen.  I won the trick and started getting the kids off the street, starting with the Jack (unblocking the 9 in case they were 4-1.)  It doesn't look like they're 4-1, since the Heart looks like from shortness but who knows?

Lefty won the Ace and played AQ of Clubs.  I was relieved when the King held the second club trick.  Now I continued drawing trumps with the Queen (lefty DID have a singleton,) followed by low to the 7 and then the King.  Here's the ending when the King of Spades was played:

- / A85 / AQ3 / 7

K8 / J9 / T94 / -

What do you pitch from dummy and what's your plan?

You can pitch a club and play a diamond to the Queen if you want to ensure all the tricks but one (if Righty wins, he's endplayed since he can't have any more clubs) and you can make all of them if Hearts are 3-3 and the diamond King is onside that way.  Or you can hope that Lefty didn't make some weird MUD lead in Hearts and take the Diamond finesse, then the Heart finesse (low to the 9,) then claim if that wins.  That's the percentage line.

Being the considerate partner that I am, having missed game I tried my best not to make 5, pitching a Diamond on the King of Spades and taking the Diamond finesse, then cashing the Diamond Ace.  When I ruffed the Club to my hand, Righty found himself caught in a vicious pseudo squeeze and decided that he must keep the Diamond Jack at all costs.  So he let a Heart go and that was that. 

I've got to do a better job of screening opps.