Missed Another One

Playing in a regional Swiss against good opposition, I deal and pick up

AK8763

AK53. I open 1

and partner bids a forcing 1NT. It's IMPs, so I rebid 2

. (At matchpoints, I'd seriously consider underbidding a little with 2

just in case partner is about to pass. The major rates to score more than clubs.) Partner takes a preference to 2

, so I raise to 3

. He should be able to figure out when game is good, so it's worth the small risk of going minus in 3

to allow partner an intelligent decision. He passes quickly (uh, oh!), and equally quickly, LHO fires out a small spade. I see

	AJ32 J9 J8753 86

	7 AK8763 42 AK53

Declarer	Dummy
1	1NT
2	2
3	Pass

We play Flannery, which is why partner didn't bid 1

. But it looks as if we have missed an excellent game here. Who didn't bid enough?

I win the spade and plan to ruff two clubs in dummy. If all goes well, I could make five. So I cash two clubs in hand, and everyone follows. I lead a third club, LHO follows, and partner reaches for the 9. "Hold it. Ruff high, please." I'm not in game, so I want to make extra sure I make my nine tricks; if RHO has two clubs and 10x and I ruff low, he can overruff and return a trump and I'll lose five tricks. In practice, RHO follows. (Oh, well.) I ruff a spade, then lead the last club. LHO ruffs with the ten (did I blow a trick?), and exits with the K. Yes, he underled KQxx for whatever reason. I ruff and draw trumps, which are now 2-2, so I make ten tricks. The safety play didn't cost a trick. Whew.

At the other table, my counterpart bid 4 after a similar start, 1-1; 2-2, and also made ten tricks. Maybe I didn't bid enough. K&R says my hand is worth 19 points, but my sequence seems pretty sensible to me.