Had a pleasant set (26 boards) against Jeff and JZ tonight.  It was a tight match until the 23rd board, when they put back to back double digit swings together.  One was a somewhat unlucky double by partner (he had QJT9x in the suit, but the opps were probably going to bid even higher and he was likely going to be on lead anyway, so it didn't have a whole lot going for it.)  The other was a nice slam on 22 high that the boys blasted to (they were the only ones there.)  We lost the match by 9 and change.  I probably had the fewest close decisions of the foursome and so didn't make many blunders.

Before the set Jeff and I played a few boards and I was having a little trouble getting into bridge mode.  I got caught taking a nap on defense on this hand: 

All red in first

AT864 / K87 / T64 / A6

I passed (a lot of players open AAK even if the hand is balanced, but not me.)

Righty opened 1NT and I passed again (I'd have come in white, but I don't think it's particularly close red.)  It went all float.  I led the appropriate Spade (in this case, the 4, since we play 3/5 leads.)

5 / 9542 / QJ87 / KJT9 Dummy (LHO)

AT864 / K87 / T64 / A6

Jeff won the Spade King and returned the 9.  Declarer played the Deuce and then the Jack.

I figured Declarer was marked with the Queen, so there was no rush to clear Spades.  I'd just encourage and then when Jeff gets back in, another Spade through and I'd cash my Spades.  I ducked with almost no pause for thought.

Oops.

My analysis is flawed for about 3 reasons. 

First, Jeff might never get back in (if Declarer has 17, Jeff might only have a 2 count at this point.) 

Second, if Jeff DOES get back in, wouldn't it be nice if he could put a Heart through?

Third, if I had no entries or couldn't afford to clear the suit myself, my duck would be normal and correct, but if you have entries and can clear a suit, it's almost always right to do so.  Unless Declarer has 5 Spades my T8 will set up the suit and even on the remote chance he does have 5 Spades, Jeff wouldn't have another one to play through anyway and it still wouldn't cost a trick unless I continued with a 4th round.

All of this is obvious.  (I don't call it 'The Ugly' for nothing.) 

Back to the hand.

Declarer continued with the AQ of Hearts.  It looked to me like Declarer would surely tackle Clubs if in possession of the Queen, so I tried to get Jeff on lead with a low Club.  No dice.  Declarer won the Queen and fired a Club back.  Now what?

At this point I (in desperation) hoped that Jeff had (mysteriously) returned the 9 from an original holding of K9xx and I cashed my Spade Ace.  Declarer's play of the Jack at trick 2 looks funny (it's normal to play the highest of equals there) and maybe it was done to try to protect an original holding of QJx.  No dice.  Jeff followed with the 7 and Declarer with the Trey and we were soon scoring up -120.

To add insult to injury, Jeff had the Diamond Ace the whole time.  Even after my blunder and misread we could have beaten it with a simple Diamond switch when I was in with the Club Ace.  If I had counted Declarer's hand (3 points in Spades, 7 (6 for sure) in Hearts, 2 in Clubs) it would have been abundantly clear that Jeff had either the A or K of Diamonds and after my earlier misdefense I'd better hope it was the Ace.

-120 was 6 IMPs and change away.

5 / 9542 / QJ87 / KJT9

QJ32 / AQJT / K32 / Q4

Ironically, Jeff has to switch to a Heart at trick 2 to beat the hand double dummy.  But I know I'm not finding that play from:

K97 / 63 / A95 / 87532