Bridge Blog 919-A: How did we fail?

Continued from Blog 919:

Board 1. Dottie May and Carolyn Siracuse bid and make 2 Spades. Hand record says it’s their hand, making 3 Spades. Still, we get only 0.5 out of 2 match points.

Board 2. Mike jumps to 5 Clubs, but they overcall at 5 Spades. We can make 5 Clubs. They go down 2. Hand record says we should have set them one more trick. 1 match point.

Board 3. Here’s our plus 1,100. They go down four at 4 Clubs doubled. Best we could have done is 3 Hearts. Top board!

Board 4. Another top. 3 Diamonds making four overtricks. Should have made only one overtrick.

Board 9. I’m North. I should make 3 No Trump plus an overtrick. Instead, I’m down one against Chuck Schorr and Janet Frisch. Zero.

Board 10. Redemption at 1.5 match point. I make an overtrick at 2 Spades. Should only take eight tricks.

Board 11. Middle board. This time I’m at 3 Spades, down two, which is what should happen. They can make 3 Hearts. Good sacrifice.

Board 12. We let Chuck play it at 1 Diamond. It should make 3 Diamonds and it does. Another middle board. After these two rounds, we’re hitting 56.25%.

Board 13. I make an overtrick at 3 NT against Joe Rooney and Bill Boardman. And I should make an overtrick. Still, it’s good for 1.5 out of 2.

Board 14. Bill bids 3 Spades, makes an overtrick. He shouldn’t. Mike and I don’t find our bid. We could make 3 NT or 4 Diamonds. That’s a zero.

Board 15. Bill bids 3 Diamonds, makes it. Should get an overtrick. Should make 3 Hearts or (gasp!) 6 Clubs. Nevertheless, it’s only 0.25 for us. Screwed.

Board 16. Bill again. 1 Diamond. Makes three overtricks. Should only make one. Still, it’s a middle board. Now we’re at 49.47%.

Skip Board 17 on the final round and go to Board 18 against Joyce Greenspan and Ron Henrikson. I go down one at 2 NT. Good defense or bad card management? I should make it. Zero.

Board 19. Mike finally gets to play a hand at 2 Hearts. Makes two overtricks. We shoulda bid it. Another 0.25.

Board 20. Ron plays 3 Hearts, goes down 4. Plus 400 for us. A top. Our percentage is still slipping: 47.46%.

Board 21. Against a really good player, Tom Koralewski, and a not-so-good one, Tish Schiffman, with whom I got my all-time low score a couple months ago (see Blog 904). I leave Mike at 2 Spades, despite holding S: Q-8-5-3; H: Q-J-5-3; D: K-Q-7-6; C: Q. Bad move. He makes two overtricks, as he should. Bottom board.

Board 22. Revenge. I bid 3 NT, despite weakness in Diamonds, make 3 overtricks, one more than I oughta. Top board.

Board 23. Tish endplays her partner. Instead of going down one at 3 Spades, I make it. 1.75 match points.

Board 24. Mike plays 2 Hearts, makes two overtricks. He’s got six Hearts, five Spades, singletons in the minors. I have S: K-8; H: Q-9-3-2; D: J-10-5; C: Q-6-4-3. Did he bid and rebid Hearts or did he bid 1 Spade and then 2 Hearts over my 1 NT response. Don’t remember. A middle board but it should have been better. Percentage now: 50.34%

Board 25. Against Allen Beroza and Liz Clark. This is the round that breaks us. I think we played it second, right after Dottie May and Carolyn Siracuse. With a big hand, I double Allen at 4 Spades and he goes down two, one more than he should. We wonder, would we have made 3 NT? Turns out, yes. We could even make 4 NT, despite having just one Spade stopper. We also would succeed at 5 Clubs. Good sacrifice against us when we’re vulnerable and they’re not. 0.25 of a match point.

Board 26. Allen again. This time at 3 Diamonds, making two overtricks. I should take my Ace of Spades when I get a chance early in the play. Then he only makes 1 overtrick, which is what he ought to make. Bottom board.

Board 27. Another bottom. Liz plays 5 Clubs, makes an overtrick. How can we avoid it? That’s what it makes. We could sacrifice at 5 or 6 Spades, but we’d lose even worse.

Board 28. Middle board. Liz bids and makes 3 NT. That’s what it makes. Nothing we can do about it. And there we are at 43.48%.