Tough Opponents

To the extent that playing bridge can be boring, yesterday afternoon's game was just that.  Julie and I played east-west, and we have never before had so few points.  Out of 27 boards, we got the contract a total of 6 times (all partial games or going down).  I was consistently looking at hands with an average of 2-6 points, which likely explains my rash bidding when we came up against a pair of our toughest opponents.

We traditionally get low boards against these A players, who are always on top with 60%+ games.  They steal our bids and make slams while smiling and joking, and then graciously explain what we should have done differently.  This day we again started out with few points, so they took the bid and made their 3NT contract (a very low board for us).  Then I made a 1NT contract, which seemed bad at the time although it turned out to be an almost average board.  Finally came the last board for this round and finally it seemed as though Julie and I had some points.  We bid toward game in spades, but our opponents were also bidding and topped our bid of 4 spades with 5 diamonds.  With unfavorable vulnerability and no way of making 5 spades (game was a stretch), I ignored the little voice in my head that kept repeating "pass" and out of frustration I boldly bid 5 spades.  Everyone passed and play began.  "I am tired of you two stealing our bids" and "It's only a game" were my defensive comments.  Plus, I didn't have to play it--Julie did.  

Well, we went down two vulnerable for -200 points and were instructed that a better bid would have been a double, since there was no way they could have made 5 diamonds.  However, while I am sure this would have been a better bid (it never crossed my mind, although apparently Julie had considered it), it turned out to be a good board for us.  Not a top one, but it was above average.  

The moral of the story is that I need to develop a better sense of when to sacrifice, since I had no idea at the time that this score was a good one.  I also need to think harder about doubling.  At the end of this "boring" afternoon, we ranked first in C for the session and fourth overall.  I guess it wasn't so tedious after all.