[pclayton]

It would be funny it wasn't true. Well, maybe its kinda funny............

You are playing in the 3 session knockouts in Buena Park. Your team has 5,200 MPs, so you are in the bottom of the 2nd bracket, so you'd better play really good bridge if youre going to have a chance in this event.

The first two hands are part scores and games as usual, although you eke out a 2nd overtrick in the game with good play, so you're pleased with the start.

The 3rd hand you pick up white on red as dealer: ♠xx ♥AKxxx ♦Jxxx ♣Qx. Your partnership allows 5 card weak 2's at this vulnerability and this hand certainly qualifies. 2♠ on your left, pass by pard. 3♥ on your right and you double for the lead (not my favorite agreement, but thats what you play). 3♠ by lefty and double by pard.

RHO sends it back. Here is the entire hand:

Scoring: IMP

---

Pard leads the Q♥. Declarer goes about the business of drawing trump and ruffing out your ♥AK for 2♦ pitches.

Ever seen -2160?

Somehow your teammates end up -100 on the hand (you don't ask why), so you lose 19 IMPs. A personal record for me.

We lose the 24 board match by 9.

No one is happy and we don't stay around for the single session swiss.

[han]

This is the kind of stuff that partners do to us, and I wouldn't say anything. What is their to say? If you are not absolutely sure that partner knows what he just did then you could ask later if partner agrees that your hand is double of 3H. Partner will say yes (given the agreement) so it is absolutely clear. Treat partner to a cup of coffee, he will sleep worse than you will.

[kenberg]

No doubt it is bizarre. If you never intend to play with this partner again there is no need to say anything although a simple acknowledgment that you seem to have incompatible styles might be well-received. If you are in general terms happy with this partner and wish to continue playing together then I think the obvious is to say, away from your teammates, that there needs to be some discussion of what went wrong and leave it to him to explain what on earth he had in mind. Perhaps you will be able to work this out, perhaps not. I can't say his action makes any sense to me at all. Possibly after discussion you will jointly decide the two of you need to go your separate ways, or perhaps you will each learn something about how each other thinks and this will lead to an improved partnership.

"I just may be the lunatic you're looking for..." --- Billy Joel

Or you could strangle him. A jury of your bridge playing peers would rule it justifiable homicide.

[han]

I think kenberg's reaction is way too strong. Sure, partner made a horrible mistake, but you are not going to split up your partnership because of one hand. This is not bermuda bowl bridge (judging from the 5900 total masterpoints), but I expect that even the best bridge players forgive the most terrible calls, and judge their partner over a longer time than one hand.

[Free]

Exactly. It's not because of a horrible mistake on 1 board (or even several boards) that you end your partnership! You just hope partner learns from his mistakes, or you learn from your mistakes, and if you see this actually happens you're glad he/you made that error so soon. Sometimes people have an off-day, nothing you can do about it except hope it'll become better. Some encouraging words can do miracles on some occasions!

First competition match of this year happened something similar: I bid ♠ (could have longer m), partner supports, opps end in 3NT, I dbl to ask a non-♠ lead (I had ♣AKQJx). ♠x was lead from Kxx and declarer made 3NT*+4 instead of 3NT*-1. The other table made 5♦= (NV) so we lost 11 imps where we should've won 10. We went outside, cooled down a bit, tried to forget it for the rest of the match, and talked about it later (obviously). We lost the match, but I'm quite sure we won't have the same error again, so after all it was worth it...

Here I'd just step away from the table to cool down (since I'd be furious), and talk about it later when I'm calm. I'd like to know what the reasoning was behind a ridiculous Dbl on a partscore bid.

[kenrexford]

The error is plainly yours. LOL. My explanation:

I, personally, had a similar situation occur, in a 7-board swiss. On hand #1, partner answered RKCB wrong. I decided to place the contract at 6NT, rather than 6S, because of his answer (the only risk seemed to be a trump loser). This was doubled. The vulnerable spade slam made, but the vulnerable 6NTX was doomed for -2300. (What is that swing???)

Anyway, I kicked in. I found a neat falsecard to hold the contract to -500. That saved some IMP's.

Hand #2. I held Axxx-xx-xx-AKJxx, white on red. RHO opened 1C, so I dutifully overcalled 1NT (15-18), of course. LHO passed, and partner started with 2D, Jacoby Transfer. This was doubled by RHO. Your call?

Simple! Needing a few, I sent it back. XX. LHO, also holding a diamond stack, was helpless, as no XXX exists in bridge (except perhaps at the midnight games). Partner liked his doubleton diamond also, and passed. RHO went into the tank for several minutes, emerging at 3C. This, of course, was doubled, for +1700 our way.

The lesson is -- "When partner hands them 24 IMP's, take it back."