This is one of those hands where even though X was my choice and X works out, I am not at all confident of it. My initial choice was pass but then I started thinking. A major part of my flip really was that I figured I would, at the table, be thining too long and too obviously for my partner to be able to reopen if he had the hand for it. Surely the director would be called (this was a regional, you mentioned, not a friendly club game, although the director should be called there also) or, more likely, partner would just look at his hand and figure my thinking precluded him from acting unless it is really obvious to do so. Anyway, on the current hand he surely would not act over a pass by me, in tempo or not.
The hand is a bit lucky, more than a bit. We have a ten car heart fit, the trumps split 2-1 (likely but not certain and there was a pre-empt), the
AK not only provides 2 tricks it also takes care of the
losers.
One worry about my X was that they would go on to 4
, which they did, and partner would double, expecting me to have more than I have. I would be very uneasy about passing that X, and even more uneasy about pulling it. As the cards are, partner is not doubling 4
and, for that matter, we can set it 2 tricks if he does. On the auction, getting two top trump and a ruff seems unlikely, but so it is. LOTT actually is accurate here, we can take 11 ricks, we can hold them to 8.
All's well that ends well!
