HCL Pairs Finals – a sorry tale of lost opportunities, poor decisions and more.. – morning session

Quite in contrast to the previous hand, the next poor result was a totally self committed harakiri.

Here’s the hand and auction

 That double of 3♥ by partner was against our agreement. We tend to play pure doubles, with shortage. Three honours in the suit, and only a doubleton ♦  are a no-no. However, there it was. I chose to hedge with 3♠ rather than gamble into a precarious 4 minor

The defense started with ♦ A and shifted to ♣ J. Placing the king on my right, I went up Ace and played a spade. East won the ace, cashed ♣ K and crossed to ♦ K to collect his ♣ ruff. He now played a small ♦ ruffed by West and overruffed in dummy. It was certainly obvious that 3♥ was not making for them, and I had already lost 5 tricks . However, -100 might be worth a couple of matchpoints, -200 was certainly a zero. I’d be -1 if ♠ were 3-3 initially, but when East proved to have 4 of them, I tried the finesse of ♥ T in desperation. No luck – 200 away and a clear zero.