Playing dominoes

I played bridge online Friday night with Kate. The last round, we were matched against a player named domino and his partner. He opened 1♣, his partner made a non-forcing raise to 2♣. I overcalled 2♥, domino bid 2♠ and my partner, Kate, raised to 3♥, and that was the final contract.

                  ♠ 10 9 8 2
                  ♥ K 4
                  ♦ A Q 8 4
                  ♣ A 3 2
==
                  ♠ Q 7 5 3
                  ♥ Q J 7 6 5
                  ♦ K 4 2
                  ♣ 7

My 2♥ bid is not a thing of beauty, but we like to play that the one on our side who is short in the opponents' suit should strain to balance or pre-balance. Even so, my bid was frisky. What is it they say? Kids, don't try this at home.

Domino led the ♠K and shifted to a low heart. The first domino had fallen -- the defense wasn't off to its best start. I played low and when East played the ♥9, I won, and led another. Domino grabbed his ♥A and now shifted to the ♣6, taken by the ace. If hearts split, I could draw the last trump, and test diamonds or try to set up a spade trick. But what if hearts didn't split?

I ruffed a club and led my ♥J. East showed out -- domino had the ♥10 left. I led a diamond to the queen, ruffed another club with my last trump on which domino played the jack. The deal was now a read-out (hands rotated):

                  ♠ 10 9 8 2
                  ♥ K 4
                  ♦ A Q 8 4
                  ♣ A 3 2
♠ A K J 6                     ♠ 4
♥ A 10 8 2                    ♥ 9 3
♦ J 6                         ♦ 10 9 7 5
♣ J 9 6                       ♣ K Q 10 8 5 4
                  ♠ Q 7 5 3
                  ♥ Q J 7 6 5
                  ♦ K 4 2
                  ♣ 7

I cashed the ♦K and led another. Domino ruffed, but his last two cards were the ♠K J, and the last domino had fallen -- he was endplayed. I was so sure of his hand, in fact, I claimed before he led to trick 12.

We gained 4.77 IMPs on the board. A common result was a club partial their way making plus 110. A few played our way in their 4-4 spade fit, and didn't enjoy that very much. You can see all the results here.