The Full Deal
At our table, NS sold out to two hearts. The opening lead was the King of diamonds; with a diamond ruff being threatened, declarer laid down the Ace of hearts dropping South’s King; now Queen of hearts and Queen of spades, and declarer had nine tricks. Plus 140 scored 76% for EW, and plus 110 would have been 52% for EW. Some NS pairs bought the contract at three clubs (plus 110 scored 94% for NS, 6% for EW), and others pushed EW to three hearts at which declarer sometimes went down (down one in three hearts was 28% for EW, 72% for NS).
Bonus from Val: This deal illustrates a frequent lesson: allowing opponents to play at the two level — with a fit — tends to lose matchpoints in the long run. For this reason, some advanced pairs have the agreement that it’s OK to make this sort of “pre-balancing” double even as an un-passed hand. Deal C085.
To explore alternative lines of play and defense, use this link: https://tinyurl.com/mr2un8vc
Decisions whether to compete to the three level are covered in Chapter 2 of Real World Bridge 5: Competitive Bidding Part Two. Chapter 4 of that book provides additional discussion of “balancing” (decisions whether to bid one more when the opponents have found a fit).