Bridge is a game of mistakes

A (incomplete) list of the mistakes me and my (expert) partner made today Indefensible — Missed that I could be squeezed out of my ace1. Missed a suit count signal, so missed given a ruff . Didn’t fake a jump shift2 and instead only shows an invitational hand, missing a game. Forgot to hold up an ace at a suit contract (for communication reasons). Defensible — We’d agreed to play “Equal Level Conversion” (ELC)3, but did not discuss if it applied after advancers jump or at the three level which left us both guessing on an auction. We used to play inverted minors, but no longer do, and I couldn’t remember which was which. Accidentally grabbed a low card instead of an honor and gave up a trick. A debatable line in an awkward contract and a few very close bidding decisions that didn’t work. Bad Luck — Partner twice made the technically correct play when the naive/simple one scores better. (Amusingly, on the second one I was paying attention as dummy and correctly diagnosed why she was…