Playing in the finals of a regional flight A barometer pairs game, partner is a very experienced player, but our partnership is new. He's not having a good day, and I'm out of practice, so our game is having its ups and downs. So far this evening, it's been all downs. I deal myself the usual:

 9865 Q3 86 K9852

1

1

Q

3

4

3

4

8

	Q732 76542 73 107
9865 Q3 86 K9852

Me	LHO	CHO	RHO
Pass	Pass	1	1
Pass	3	Dbl	Redbl
3	Pass	Pass	4
All Pass

J

Why isn't declarer drawing trump? If he had both the Ace and King, he'd surely draw two rounds. He's seen my high diamond lead and knows of the danger of a trump promotion. He must not be worried about that, so he must have the K. If he had AJ10xx, he'd probably plunk down the Ace, losing only if partner has all three trumps, impossible on the auction. He must be missing the trump ace, which partner holds singleton, and is trying to get to dummy to lead trumps towards his hand. That means he must have 1543 shape. He probably has  x KJ1098 AK10x Axx. Is there anything I can do about this? Yes, we need to continue diamonds after winning this trick; partner will win the A, cash a spade, give me a trump promotion, and we'll have four tricks. Could declarer's black ace be in spades? I guess so; in that case, we'll need to cash a second club before playing diamonds, as declarer will have three diamond tricks and a pitch for the losing club. How will partner know which of those hands declarer holds? Do I have the A or the K? I surely don't have both. I see it! How about if I play the K on this trick? Partner will now be playing double-dummy; if he has the AK, I'll win this trick and continue diamonds (or spades). If he has the A, he'll overtake if he has the Q or encourage otherwise. We might set up declarer's Q, but that's not an important trick.

Upon reflection, I play the K to the second trick. Partner, without thinking, overtakes. Good! He has the AQ and won't have a problem. In tempo, he continues with the Q, to which I carefully contribute the deuce, just in case he's not sure about the hand. Again, in tempo, he shifts to small spade. Does partner have a doubleton club? That'd be OK if declarer ruffs a club. Declarer wins the stiff Ace, ruffs a club, partner's following (argh), and plays a trump. Partner wins the A and starts to think. After a few seconds, I just fold my cards, so declarer claims, knowing that I have a second diamond and fourth club, the whole hand's being:

	Q732 76542 73 107
9865 Q3 86 K9852		KJ104 A QJ942 AQ3
	A KJ1098 AK105 J64

This is a near zero; few bid game with our opponents' cards and not all of them made it. After four boards, we are almost two full boards below average. It's going to be a long evening.

Things go a little better after this; I have the opportunity to fly solo a few times (down this far this early, getting a winning momentum going is important) and was lucky, but we never fully recovered.

I run into the above declarer after the first break; he's a good buddy. He notes that we have helped him get on the leader board, so at least there's a silver lining to our game. I am not consoled and am in a pretty bad mood, so I remark that they bid both hands well, but he hacked the play on the 4 contract. "Huh?" "Yeah, my partner gave you the contract. To make it on your own, you had to play a small heart from hand at trick two. The play is fairly strongly indicated." "What do you mean? How could I tell RHO had the stiff Ace?" "Given that we didn't have a whole lot of high cards, his double has to be based on trump shortness. If I had both the trump honors, perhaps I might've doubled 4? That means RHO doesn't have a void or a small singleton. Which honor does he have? If he has the Ace, you have to duck one now or we'll get a promotion on third round of diamonds. If he has the Queen, you can do anything but that. Which is more likely? I'd play the doubler for the Ace; with Ax, I might lead trumps and partner might not double with just the Q. With an ace and four spades, I'd probably make a negative double of 1. All the indications point towards the actual layout."

Still, he wasn't punished, and we were. Bridge can be frustrating sometimes.