Losing even with the help of state champions

I'm in Bangalore now, visiting a college buddy.  This was the fellow who introduced me to bridge; he still plays regularly.  So, we went to his bridge club to play a team game -- by far the longest trip I've ever made to play bridge!

The teams were randomly assigned, and our teammates turned out to be one half of the state champions. That helped us to end up second overall.

This was one of the few bright spots on our side of the table:

	♠ AK109876 ♥ AK86 ♦ 2 ♣ Q6
	♠ J ♥ Q1073 ♦ KQ7 ♣ K9875

At our table, the bidding went 1S by North (me), 2C by South, double by west, 2H by me, 3H by S, 3S by me (completing my 6-4 distribution and showing slam interest), but partner bid 3NT.  I took that to mean a slam try by partner ("serious 3nt"), but concerned that West's double meant he had a 4-card heart, I signed off in 4H.  They led a small heart, and I had no problem making 6 when hearts turned out to split 3-2. It was just that west had made an off-shape takeout double with 15 points.  Meanwhile, their teammates didn't get the double by West and drove to slam.  East made the natural lead of an unbid suit (diamonds). His partner cashed the two outstanding aces for down 1.

This was one of our poor boards:

	♠ AK10 ♥ 65 ♦ K9 ♣ AKQJ109
	♠ J73 ♥ KJ9872 ♦ 765 ♣ 2

With the six-card club suit, partner (North) nevertheless opened 1NT. I transferred to hearts and bid 3H. Partner corrected to 3NT and I corrected him back to 4H.  Down 2 when we had 3 heart losers on the layout.  At the other table, they opened 1C and had no problem staying in 3NT.