[inquiry]

This was a big swing against us. Benlessard was playing in 5♣ in the other room (ns). Here I thought long before passing 6♥. Not a lot to say about the play, I thought long and hard before passing 6♥. The problem was I was worried that 7♥ might make, or I might go down five in 6♠. I actually thought Barry had the black suits for 2nt, so I was worried they had a double fit. I thought 5♣ was a cue-bid of my partner's second suit.

In the final analysis, should I have saved at 6♠? Well, I can win 8 tricks (5♠, 1♦, and 2 ♦ ruffs) and they can't make 13, so the double dummy answer is yes.

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[Phil]

I noticed a few things about this hand.

1. Barmar misbid. 2N shows the unbids (blacks) and he had ♠ + ♦. On any given day I might bid 1♠ or 2♠.

2. 4♠ looks like a good move with your double 'fit'. Barmar well judged with 5♠ having a 6th card. It is a good question to ask whether this is just competitive, or suggests to partner to sac in case they bid 6.

3. An 800 save against a NV slam is a hard way to earn a living. Frankly I don't blame either of you. With your hand, a sac does not look profitable, and Barry might have been concerned you had a defensive trick.

I do not know what happened at the other table or why they stayed out of 6. It seems rather routine to get there after 1♦ - (pass) - 1♥ - (1♠). Benlessard's partner doubled, which might mean something in their methods, but it didn't seem to help the cause. Ben's 4♣ seemed to confirm there was accident - why would he be asking about key cards in clubs? So even if you find the sacrifice, you cut an 11 IMP loss to 9.

[barmar]

Yeah, I misbid. I saw my two-suiter, and didn't notice that one of them was the same as opener's. Otherwise I would have just jumped to 2{SP].

With my extreme distribution and Ben bidding 4♠ freely over the cue bid, 5♠ took little thought.

I was kind of hoping that my misbid would have caused them to misjudge. If they had, we'd be cheering my brilliant psyche.