Hi all
More Patton, from last Tuesday. There were some crazy games and a couple of fatal mistakes. This deal my opponents were playing with my head. They said they were looking for down two vulnerable, but all they did was offer me a chance to steal my contract.
RHO opens 1
and I double for takeout. I’m not really happy with my distribution, but I have good points and a four card 
suit. Hoek bids 2 (showing a good hand) and this gets doubled by RHO. Now I could have passed to show a minimum, but I was afraid Hoek would move on to 3
, so I bid 2. Everybody takes ten seconds to think, but nobody has anything to add.
The opponents start with three rounds of (West discarding two 
). East returns the Queen of . I take it in dummy and review my options and chances. Something good has to happen in , so I try a small one to my 8, losing to West’s 9. The continuation I take again in dummy and I ruff a (East discarding a ).
The distribution is still a mystery to me. Still either opponent could hold four trumps, I could not see. Now when I played two rounds of , East discarded another . What the hell? Why doesn’t he ruff for down one? The third round of also stays alive, so I’m in my hand right now:
If I had read the position correctly, East holding four trumps with King-Queen, the solution is easy. Ruff my Ace of with the trump Ten. East will have to overruff, but is then endplayed. Forced to give me a free finesse in trumps.
I couldn’t believe my opponents were this bad, so I threw the hand away for minus one. If only I had been alert enough. If only, if only! I would have loved to crack my whip on East for his greediness.