[ggwhiz]

As a rookie, I got my first game with a local expert who saw some promise.

I capped off our 35% game by bidding kc on hearts and getting a 5♠ reply showing we were off 2 bullets since I had the ♥K. Nowhere to run but what a pard. He shook his head and said, "You are better than this, tommorrow 7 p.m. be there."

If I had noticed this thread earlier I would have it up to a couple of hundred pages by now.

[Antrax]

Actually not that bad a session, especially considering I haven't really played in over 6 months.
However, one obvious defensive blunder comes to mind:
Favourable, partner deals himself a 2♦ opening (weak). RHO overcalls 2♥. Looking at ♠Axxx ♥xxx ♦AT ♣xxxx I'm fine with passing, and LHO bumps to 4♥. I lead the ♦A and dummy hits with ♠QJxx ♥KT872 ♦xx ♣AT
Partner discourages and I try to decide which black suit to shift to, when a brilliant idea hits me - I can just ask. So I follow with the ♠A, partner discourages again, and the club shift finally releases an encouraging spot from his clutches. Too bad declarer then draws trumps, unblocks the ♠K and pitches his clubs on the good spades in dummy. Somehow I'd only thought about whether declarer could pitch dummy's ♣T, without giving any consideration to pitching losers from his own hand

[kenberg]

I like the Antrax blunder hand and I hope it is ok to comment. This was matchpoints? If the discouraging diamond at trick 1 denies the diamond king then it seems, after the diamond ace has been cashed, we only have a spade, a club and a diamond on any defense. But if partner has the diamond king I congratulate him on the discouraging card. The second diamond trick can wait, establishing the club cannot.

[Antrax]

Yeah, partner had the ♦K but recognized we have to develop a club trick, and holding the ♣K but not Q, wanted me to lead the clubs.

[kenberg]

Antrax, on 2013-February-12, 09:14, said:

Yeah, partner had the ♦K but recognized we have to develop a club trick, and holding the ♣K but not Q, wanted me to lead the clubs.

Too bad it didn't work out as it might have, but I always am pleased when partner and I can go over such things productively.

[Antrax]

Oh, we had a great session. Like I told him after: we may have made stupid decisions, but we made them together. Zero misunderstandings and one misbid by me.

[Cyberyeti]

I think my favourite blunder was one of those hands where you have a nice trump fit, a singleton spade and can basically count 12 top tricks, with all keycards held ... "and a spade ruff in my hand makes 13" thinks I so I bid the no play grand forgetting partner has already shown me 543 in the other suits in the auction.

[Antrax]

Yesterday I probably gave the worst performance since I learned how to play. I was seriously sleep deprived and at some point even the auto pilot went to sleep. Here's an example.

---

The lead is a ♦. See if you can blunder your way into limiting yourself to only 10 tricks (Matchpoints, so it matters).
To the untrained eye, it seems you will score three clubs, three diamonds, a diamond ruff, a spade and between three and four heart tricks. However, that eye is not asleep. Here's how I played it: win in dummy. Decide to finesse in hearts "twice". Run the 9 to ensure E isn't tempted to cover. W wins Q, and switches to a club. Play the K from dummy, because God knows you're short of entries, and also it makes perfect sense to finesse again, and drop the Q under it. Now finesse again. Hearts were 2-2. E switches to a spade, and now you start thinking, try dropping the ♦J, try a psuedo-squeeze, and finally surrender another spade. I think my favourite part was when I looked at the scoresheet and said "I have no idea how you can make 12 tricks. Probably friendly defense" with total conviction - the idea of cashing winners never even crossed my mind.