I have played quite a lot of bridge this week. Three times I have suffered a bad result for the same basic reason.

The first hand occurred at the sectional last Saturday. I was sitting North, my partner dealt, and only the opponents were vulnerable. To the best of my recollection the bidding went as follows:

Partner	West	Me	East
P	1NT	P	2♣	(Stayman)
2♦	2♥	P	4NT	(RKC)
P	5♥	P	6♥
P	P	P

So I pondered the following facts before leading against 6♥.

1. Partner’s bid asked for a diamond lead. I had a doubleton in his suit.
2. I knew that West had used RKC Blackwood.
3. The ace of spades was shouting at me to lead it. I knew that aggressive leads are often successful against small slams in suit contracts. Sometimes if you don’t take the ace, it gets discarded on a side suit.

I therefore planned to lead my ace, take a look at the board, and then lead diamonds unless that appeared fruitless.

Unfortunately, the dummy was void in spades and had two small diamonds. My partner had the ace and king, which he tried to tell me when he made his bid. My attention was drawn to that 4NT bid, however, and everyone knows (or so I supposed) that no one uses Blackwood with a void. Furthermore, West knew that her team was missing two key cards — they could have been the ace and king of trump — and she bid a slam anyway.

Well, it worked. We got our worst board of the session. I should have trusted my partner, but I thought that there was a 0 percent chance that he had the ♦A. When I explained my reasoning, he opined that I gave the opponents too much credit.

In last Thursday’s Instant Matchpoint Game I found myself declaring a rather routine-looking 3NT contract. I held:

♠ Q 8 2  ♥ A K 5 2  ♦ A 7 6  ♣ A 10 5The opening lead was the ♦3, and this was the dummy:

♠ A K J 6  ♥ J 8  ♦ J 8 4  ♣ Q 9 7 2Four spade tricks, two heart tricks, and one in each minor. Nine should be easy, and ten looked feasible. I made sure that the opponents used standard leads and thought about the diamond suit. If East had the KQ combination with four or five diamonds, he would probably lead the K, especially if he also held the 10 or 9. So, I pictured the high diamond honors as split. On the other hand, he could easily have the 9 and 10 and one high honor. I therefore inserted the 8 from the dummy and was disconcerted when West played the nine and I had to take my ace. I then tried for an overtrick in clubs, and that failed, too. I ended up going down in a cold contract because East actually held the K Q 10 3 2 of diamonds. Evidently he knew to lead fourth from longest and strongest, but he had never learned to lead the top of a broken sequence.

Last Wednesday night was the worst. This was the bidding:

North	Me	South	Partner
1NT	P	4♣	P	(Gerber)
5♥	P	5♣	P	(Gerber for Kings)
6♣	P	6NT	P	???
P	P

Until the 6♣ bid this auction seemed straightforward. Since North had one ace, South must have three. Otherwise she would not have dared to ask for kings. I held two kings. There was no telling how many North had, but I figured that I had about a 25 percent chance of taking two tricks as long as I did not get endplayed. I chose a passive lead of the ♦6 from my doubleton.

I was surprised to see that dummy had only two aces. Why in the world did she ask for kings when she knew that they were off an ace? Well, this was good news for me. Now I only had to make one of my kings good. Since dummy was missing both black aces, I was certain that we would take two tricks, my ♣K and partner’s ace. Sure enough, the declarer immediately took a club finesse and I grabbed my king.

I thought for a second or two. Dummy had the ace and queen of diamonds. Declarer had played the ace on the first trick, and my partner contributed the 7. I would have expected a low diamond, but I worked out in my head that the 7 could possibly have been the lowest one that she held. So, convinced that the spade lead was a 100 percent play I confidently set a spade on the table. My partner, however, did not play the ace. She played the 10, and the declarer claimed.

Yes, my partner had the ♦K, and yes, the declarer had made a mistake when he bid 4♥. He sheepishly admitted as much, but South never did accept responsibility for the foolish 5♣ bid. My partner was angry at me, and I was angry at the world.