Playing a little more slowly

An odd thing happened on BBO today.  I was playing with Francine.  When we play weekday mornings there are a lot of distractions for both of us.  In my case I am working in the offices of Master Point Press and people come into my office.  They asked questions.  They tell me exciting things like look at the wonderful cover for our new book.  Ray worries at me.  “The snow storm in England delayed the shipment of books to the U.K. warehouse.”  Not to mention my phone rings or my daughter calls me on Skype.  Today there were only two or three small interruptions and I had decided to try hard to concentrate.  I made sure I didn’t add my own distractions (like the financial news on my office TV).  I noticed I was thinking more and playing a bit slower.  I also noticed that I was playing better.

Then one of our opponents who was a good player and seemed friendly asked me why we were playing so slowly.  “Was our Internet slow?”  I responded; “We think.”  Ray says I should have responded “Cognito Ergo Lente” (I think therefore slow).   We had an interesting hand today that I think shows playing two-way stayman over strong notrump at its best with a big assist from Francine.  Maybe you can get there with transfers but this made it easier.

Linda ♠ 64 ♥ KJ65 ♦ AJ10 ♣ AK86

Francine ♠ KQ972 ♥ A107 ♦ K ♣ Q1074

On our auction Francine’s 2♠ bid showed five and I had shown four hearts and four or five clubs.  Francine made a great decision when she splintered in diamonds and with excellent controls I could bid the slam.  I suppose that playing transfers Francine could transfer to spades and then bid clubs.  if I know raise clubs we will probably get there.  Still I liked our auction.  Today we had quite a few killer defenses too.  I particularly like this one.

Dealer: Vul:	Linda ♠ Q732 ♥ A963 ♦ 94 ♣ 985
West ♠ J105 ♥ K752 ♦ J863 ♣ 72		East ♠ K64 ♥ QJ10 ♦ AQ7 ♣ KQ64
	Francine ♠ A98 ♥ 84 ♦ K1052 ♣ AJ103

East opened 1NT after I passed and we played there.  Francine led her fourth best diamond and my nine forced the queen.  Now declarer led hearts and I won the third round Francine throwing a discouraging ♠9.  I switched to the ♣ 9 which was covered with the ♣ Q and ♣ A.  Francine returned the ♣ J which was ducked (and I carefully held onto my 8).  Now Francine made a good play.   If I had four clubs then she could return any club and it wouldn’t matter.  But if I had 98x she had to return a small one so she did.   I played the ♣ 8 forcing declarer’s last club honor.  Declarer pitching a diamond from dummy.  Declarer throw Francine in on the last club throwing a diamond from dummy.  Francine got out with the ♠ A and another spade my queen forcing declarer’s ace.  At this point my ♠ 7 is the master spade and declarer could only come to two more tricks the ♠ K and the ♦ A for one down.

Anyway, lente, lente is my BBO motto from now on.