Playing the common game

Visiting New York, I wheedled Bill into playing with me again. We won the North-South direction, with 59% although it didn't seem like that good a game while playing.

Partly, this was because the opponents were not making very many mistakes. On board 1, for example, they bid 4S and played a double-dummy line to make 4S:

Board 1 (10/29/13)

N Deals None Vul	Q9652  83  KQ8  987
T843  AKJ  6  QJT62	N W E S	AKJ7  Q97  A952  43
7 11 14 8	-  T6542  JT743  AK5

See if you can figure out the line to make 4S on the lead of the 8 of hearts.

On board 13, the opponents at our table found a slam that most of the field didn't. Shouldn't everyone find the slam on these cards?

Board 13 (10/29/13)

N Deals Both Vul	K8543  7  QT9652  7	13
A2  KT96  AK87  QT6	N W E S	Q9  AJ8532  3  AK94
5 16 14 5	JT76  Q4  J4  J8532

It was not all bad luck, however.  There was one bad board that was the result of me making an anti-field decision.  Sitting South, what do you lead if you hold this hand and the auction has gone 2NT-3NT?

 42

 T874

 A965

 852

I figured that I had to lead a major. But which one? Since I had no entries, and partner rated to have 6-10 points, I decided to try to hit his length by leading a spade.  Bad idea. The field chose hearts, and that was the right lead on this hand because 3NT goes down if you lead that suit.  The whole hand:

Board 21 (10/29/13)

N Deals N-S Vul	T876  AKQ  QT7  T74	21
KJ3  965  8432  J63	N W E S	AQ95  J32  KJ  AKQ9
11 5 20 4	42  T874  A965  852

The Manhattan Bridge Club games are part of The Common Game.  Against the full field, these three are still our bad boards, but we improve marginally to 60%.  Why'd we do so well? Superior card play by partner, mostly. He was dropping doubleton queens like flies. On almost every board, we were at or better than the par score.

I was looking forward to expert discussion of these hands on Bridge Winners, but it turns out that the discussion is not for the night-series games.  Sigh.