Oh dear, another unenjoyable evening

[a***@yahoo.co.uk]

Held this as green vs red as North:

986543
6
A4
T953

N E S W
1H P
1S 2C 2D 3C
P P 3S P
?

My thinking was that partner holds a 3-5-4-1 or similar shapoe, and a decent opening hand (e.g. a good 14-17 HCP or compensating distributional strength). We have no club wastage and I have the ace in her second suit. I therefore decided to raise to 4S, decpite the lack of HCP. West makes an ominoius double.

Sadly my reasoning was completely wrong. This was the full deal:

986543
6
A4
T953
- AKJ7
K832 Q75
Q9873 5
KJ87 AQ642
QT2
AJT94
KJT62
-

I won the diamond lead and set about ruffing club losers. I carelessls won in dummy innstead of hand so I think I only managed one club ruff before I tried to get back to hand with a diamond and got a ruff against me. East knows what is going on now so draws dummy's trumps and I lose a couple of clubs to eventually go four down for -800. Two other pairs are in 4S, one managed to get out for -300, one was allowed to make it (undoubled), one was allowed to play in 2S, and one EW pair played in 3C.

Being the first round, when thing start off badly they rarely get any better, and so after several more boards of what I would call very bad luck and being fixed by strange/idiotic goings on at other tables, we ended up with another sub 50% evening.

[Co Wiersma]

Post by a***@yahoo.co.uk
986543
6
A4
T953
N E S W
1H P
1S 2C 2D 3C
P P 3S P
?
My thinking was that partner holds a 3-5-4-1 or similar shapoe, and a decent opening hand (e.g. a good 14-17 HCP or compensating distributional strength). We have no club wastage and I have the ace in her second suit. I therefore decided to raise to 4S, decpite the lack of HCP. West makes an ominoius double.
986543
6
A4
T953
- AKJ7
K832 Q75
Q9873 5
KJ87 AQ642
QT2
AJT94
KJT62
-
I won the diamond lead and set about ruffing club losers. I carelessls won in dummy innstead of hand so I think I only managed one club ruff before I tried to get back to hand with a diamond and got a ruff against me. East knows what is going on now so draws dummy's trumps and I lose a couple of clubs to eventually go four down for -800. Two other pairs are in 4S, one managed to get out for -300, one was allowed to make it (undoubled), one was allowed to play in 2S, and one EW pair played in 3C.
Being the first round, when thing start off badly they rarely get any better, and so after several more boards of what I would call very bad luck and being fixed by strange/idiotic goings on at other tables, we ended up with another sub 50% evening.

Your reasoning was very good

Your partner did somewhat understandable overbid her hand
You maybe could have played some better
You were unlucky to find opponents to bid perfect for this deal
And unlucky as the full deal was

All and all nothing special about this deal
Now you should both be waked up and give it your best the rest of the
evening: do not let one bad score get you down

Co Wiersma

[Mick Heins]

Post by a***@yahoo.co.uk
Being the first round, when thing start off badly they rarely get
any better, and so after several more boards of what I would call
very bad luck and being fixed by strange/idiotic goings on at other
tables, we ended up with another sub 50% evening.

The hand is best forgotten. But if you think this way, you are
indulging in a self-fulfilling fantasy. If you shake your disasters
off, there is no reason one zero should torpedo your game. As factors
in my big improvement of the past couple years, I would rank the
internalization of the "stay in the game" lesson near the top.

[a***@yahoo.co.uk]

Post by Mick Heins

Post by a***@yahoo.co.uk
Being the first round, when thing start off badly they rarely get
any better, and so after several more boards of what I would call
very bad luck and being fixed by strange/idiotic goings on at other
tables, we ended up with another sub 50% evening.

The hand is best forgotten. But if you think this way, you are
indulging in a self-fulfilling fantasy. If you shake your disasters
off, there is no reason one zero should torpedo your game. As factors
in my big improvement of the past couple years, I would rank the
internalization of the "stay in the game" lesson near the top.

I assume a self fulfiling fantasyt means your beliefs shape your reality, and negative thoughts lead to negative results, in a kind of destructive positive feedback. The question is how to shake it off, not just one zero but when you get three or four hands in short space of time where I make what seems a reasonable decision based on available information, do it, and get punished over and over again. It is very disheartening, especially when I start the evening looking forward to the game ahead, then after three rounds thinking I'd have done better if I hadn't turned up. Maybe I need to learn some mindfullness techniques.