A mere -50

Yawn:

♠	9
♥	K T 6 3
♦	Q 7 2
♣	8 6 5 3 2

Two pair: sixes and threes. Not even my deal. LHO, East opened a spade. That improves things; in the gloom I'd expected partner to be the spade (re) bidder.

No doubt put off by a new found inability to bid my singleton partner overcalled 1NT. West next to speak doubled which starts to get all the mental gears a whirring. Lets award 10 hcp for an opening, 15 for the overcall and 10 for the double. That's every single point accounted for, all the others have a minimum (they do look a little edgy).

With the deck split I'm more than happy to try for 7 tricks in NT. Pass! Alas this is where things get weird. Opener bids 2♦. I guess with that 10 count eating a hole in his conscience he just couldn't stand to think about 280 rolling out. Partner sprung back in with 3♣ and RHO pushed a 3♠ card out.

East	South	West	North
1♠	1NT	X	Pass
2♦	3♣	3♠

Trying to put partner on a hand here is an amusing game. It crossed my mind briefly that he had the other 9 hearts and the club bid was just another fox along the way. Shrug, I'm going to bid (more than) my hand and if he's up to something so be it; 5♣. I think it's key with this sort of reckless gamble decision to always bid as confidently and as quickly as possible. Provoke the thought in the opposition mind that actually they're the ones doing the sacrificing. Startlingly 5♣ was met with silence:

	♠ 9 ♥ K T 6 3 ♦ Q 7 2 ♣ 8 6 5 3 2
♠ A K 6 2 ♥ Q 8 7 2 ♦ J 9 8 3 ♣ 9		♠ J T 7 5 3 ♥ A J 4 ♦ A K T 5 4 ♣ -
	♠ Q 8 4 ♥ 9 5 ♦ 6 ♣ A K Q J T 7 4

East wasn't patient enough with the A♥ (and who could blame them?) to get the full value out of the hand so at -50 we rested. It turns out 1NTx might not have been so hot, on careful defense we'd be left just 1 trick!