Hi all
Welcome back. Here’s another deal from the “Koemarkttoernooi” in Purmerend. Kees and I sit down against two middle-aged ladies and we inform them of our ghostly agreements. Our mention of 12-14 NT openings gets greeted with: “How illogical!”. I snicker inside, that is what you find intriguing about Phantom Club? Oh boy! Sitting South I pick up:
A lot of action during the bidding.
12- Good hand, weak hands go through Lebensohl 2NT
- Slightly insane, but white in pairs I am Iron Man
- Emotional
I lead my singleton and a scary dummy comes down.
I admire the raise on West’s beautiful 3-piece. I wait until Kees wins his Ace of 
to give me my ruff, but all he offers is a measly Ten and declarer wins it with the Queen. Yikes! How are we going to beat this? Declarer unperturbed starts on trumps and I win the second one. I can cross in to get my ruff but that’s equivalent to throwing the towel.
I take stock and visualize the play. If I cash my Ace and continue declarer will have to ruff with dummy’s final trump. In order to extract my last trump she will have to cross to her hand. Of course a ruff is the way to go, but maybe she’ll take the easy route by trying a . Then if I get my ruff we can cash another for down one.
Full deal:
It works out as I visualized. East apologizes and though I can tell West shows some signs of disappointment she doesn’t berate her partner. That’s how I like to see it. Of course I myself don’t hide my anguish & distress over Kees’ takeout double of 2, I even document it here: Garbage Royale!
On a serious side note, I’m still hunting for a job. If you happen to be in need of an Oracle Developer/DBA with affinity for wireless tech spiced up with a tad of Java, or if you give me a little time to acquire whatever skills necessary (I learn fast!), take a look at my LinkedIn profile, or shoot me a message through the contact form in About Me. Thanks.