Shubi Nandy is an old bridge friend from Ottawa who plays in tons of ACBL masterpoint tournaments online.  He is a very aggressive bidder but lands on his feet more often than not (in that respect, he reminds me of Bob Hattrup, one of my favorite partners (along with Don Dufford and Ken Frische) when I lived in Reno in the early '90's.)  He invited me to play in one tonight, so I'll report on a good board if we do well and a bad board if we do poorly.

...

Wow.  I figured that Shubi would have mellowed a bit over the years.  Ummm, no.  Unfortunately the hands didn't reward insanely aggressive bidding coupled with decent, but not inspired, card play.  Here's the board I thought was the most interesting:

I picked up in 1st at unfavorable:

43 / 832 / 2 / AKT9764

Colors are not for children.  But not bidding 3 Clubs here would be criminal.  7-3-2-1 is a lot better than 7-2-2-2 and your clubs speak for themselves.  Plus, pard knows you're going to be this good, so it's a nice constructive bid as well.

Lefty overcalled 3 Diamonds and Shubi bid 3NT. 

I was a tad worried that we might be missing slam, but if not, this figured to be a great spot.

It went all pass and I stopped worrying about missing slam.

43 / 832 / 2 / AKT9764

AT65 / KJ765 / A4 / 85

When I gave the hand to my friend Joanie, she also bid 3NT.  She and Shubi should play together sometime (I think they're the only 2 people on the planet who would even consider that call.)

His LHO led a Diamond (the ten,) Shubi ducked, won the 2nd Diamond, and led the 8 of Clubs.  His LHO (random 'Advanced' BBO player) played the Jack.

Now what?  Do you play for 2-2 Clubs or do you lead a Spade to your hand and a Club up, planning to hook if Lefty plays low?

Normally I'd say it's automatic to play for 2-2 Clubs.  That's what I expected Shubi to do.  That's what he did.  That's how we ended up with -500 on the board.  Clubs were QJx onside.

I was at first tempted to say that Shubi didn't have any chance to guess it right since his Lefty had misdefended, but if Shubi has a stiff club, his LHO has to split to ensure a Club stopper.  That might tip the balance, I don't know.  I do know that if you're going to bid that aggressively and the opps give you a chance to make, you'd better make. 

We ended up with 55% and a section 4th.  Down 5 on this particular board was worth 19% of the matchpoints (100% for +400, 55% for -130.)