Hi all
Last weekend I played the teams sectional in Oakland. Unfortunately we were not as successful as in El Cerrito, as we had to yield to team Meltzer. In the match-up (2nd round) we beat them by a fair margin, but overall we were not able to keep pace with them.
In the first round my LHO put a pass on the table, said “Oh crap, I wanted to open” three seconds later, and the director ruled a mechanical error without penalty. Right! I’m sorry, but I have very little sympathy for such a ruling. If you’re not paying enough attention to this beautiful game why should you go free? Stop wasting my time.
This deal is funny. I was playing a partscore, my opponent was in game. But where I effortlessly managed eleven tricks, my opponent ended up one trick short. Pat myself on back big time (for play, not for cowardly bidding).
1. Forcing
The lead was a small 
that ran to my Queen. I played a small to the Ten in dummy and it won the trick. A back was for LHO’s King and she persisted in for my Jack. I exited in again for LHO and now she put the Ten of 
on the table.
I took that one for real, so I didn’t try the Jack but took it with my King. I crossed to the Ace of (everybody following suit), and asked for the Queen of 
. She got covered by the King for my Ace. Two rounds of trumps later I had reached this position:
On the last trump I pitched the Ten from dummy, witnessing RHO discarding another . Innocently I played my remaining to dummy’s Ace and down came the Queen. I wiped some dust from my shoulder and asked for the next deal.
My opponent probably saw some ghosts at the other table (on a lead) and crumbled.