[Echognome]

When I have a bad board by making a mistake in judgment of play, it bothers me. I do my darnedest to get over it as quickly as I can and try to move on. When the opponents bid a thin game or slam or make a great play, I feel that's the breaks and all you can do is congratulate opponents, even though you feel a bit unlucky. But, when the opponents make an off the wall action and you get completely fixed, I find that much harder to get over.

For the first of my post mortems, let me offer the following tale. You are playing in a local swiss against a team you feel you should beat. You are dealt the following hand:

♠K98764
♥853
♦KQJ7
♣---

You are at favourable vulnerability and there are two passes to you. You decide to make life as difficult as you can for opponents and bid 3♠. This goes Pass- Pass - 3NT! Eh? RHO passed in 2nd and can now find a 3NT bid? (I should note here that LHO passed completely in tempo). Well, what can you do? So you pass, LHO passes and partner (who obviously doesn't like the sound of this) doubles. So you lead the ♦K and are soon writing down -750 on your scorecard. Here is the full deal:

Scoring: IMP

P - P - 3♠ - P
P - 3NT! - All Pass

---

North said when dummy came down "I didn't like the sound of the auction, so I felt like I had to bid." I am of course thinking, neither partner or I liked the sound of the auction either.

We thought north's balancing 3NT should have been described as "partner I have a stopper if you have a long running suit."

Note also that 4♥ is down on a club lead, whereas 3NT is rock solid. Well, I think it's time for another pint after that.

[foo]

ROTFLMAO...

*sigh*

[joshs]

LOL.

The good news was that if you bid 2S the auction would have gone:
P-P-2S-P-P-3S(I have a stopper, bid 3N with a long running suit)-P-3N

[jdonn]

You should have opened 6♠. 6NT by the opponents would have gone down several tricks.