[AL78]

MPs, I was West with a scratch partner, playing Acol, weak NT, 3 weak twos:

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I'd read on here something about the value of aggressively pre-empting so decided to apply it here. South gave the wrong Blackwood response and North said afterwards he would have bid the grand if South had showed one key card. Given at this club, I doubt anyone else would have opened my hand and therefore NS would have had a free ride, I'd have thought this should have been around average at least.

Sadly not, NS got 80% on this board. The full traveller:

3NT N +4 four times; +720
4NT S +2 once; +690
3NT N +3 twice; +690
6NT N = twice; +1440
6♣ S +1; +1390 (South took the double spade finesse through me and found the perfect lie of the cards.)

Then there was this one:
2♥ N +2; +170

I cannot comprehend how they ended up there and I think this is the strongest combined pair of hands I have ever seen that has played in a part score.

This also illustrates an issue with playing in an erratic field when the cards are loaded against you (my average HCP 9.0 across 22 boards), frequently you can be at the mercy of silly nonsense such as this and it can be a struggle to generate much. We ended up coming first EW which was a pleasant surprise, normally in sessions like this I am doing well to get much above 50%.

[bluenikki]

AL78, on 2026-January-15, 16:40, said:

This also illustrates an issue with playing in an erratic field when the cards are loaded against you (my average HCP 9.0 across 22 boards), frequently you can be at the mercy of silly nonsense such as this and it can be a struggle to generate much. We ended up coming first EW which was a pleasant surprise, normally in sessions like this I am doing well to get much above 50%.

No, it is a property of every pairs event. You are at the mercy of your opponents' taking an unusual action that works out well.

At teams, you can hope your teammates somehow duplicated the result.

[Huibertus]

Nothing wrong with 2♥ imho. Bridge is all about the odds of getting good or bad results, NOT about getting a good result on one hand. Your overall result seems to indicate you had a partnership that understands this. Bad luck on this hand. Nothing to get excited about.