Cashout by Foxymoron

 The expression "Cash Out", sometimes as one word, has become increasingly popular in recent years as betting firms offer the chance to take your winnings before the event is over.  So, if you have backed Spurs to draw at Liverpool, and it is 1-1 in the 92nd minute, you can cash out at a significant profit. Your bet is then over and when Liverpool score in the last minute you still win. Of course, you pay an "insurance premium" for this facility, which varies depending on how much time is left.

Cashing out is not new and is common in financial trading. If you bought Tesla shares a year ago, when they were a tad less than $100 per share and sold them today, at over $800 dollars a share, you would be cashing out. With a profit of $700 per share. Of course, if you bought Debenhams a year ago at 22 pence, then there would not be much point cashing out now for one penny per share at a maximum. But that would still be cashing out. We needed to cash out here:

NS had a good auction, 1C was strong, and the vulnerability deterred me from making a weak jump overcall. North showed 0-7 with 1D and 1NT showed 17-19, so they already have more room than most pairs. North showed five spades with 2H and 2S completed (as North might have nothing) and now 2NT was ostensibly a balanced invite, happy to play there opposite a 2-3-4-4 17 count for example. South's 4S was obvious.

I had an awkward lead problem. Assuming my partner has about a ten count, with two or three spades, there is a good chance of her having the queen or ace of clubs, but when she does not, a club lead could be very costly. A diamond looks wild and a trump can pick up partner's queen when declarer might have Axx opposite KJTxx and a guess he will probably get wrong. In the end I went for the eight of hearts, which seemed safe, if rather passive.  

Vampyr faced a difficult decision. She won with the ace - playing the jack was an alternative - and South dropped a deceptive nine. Now Vampyr needed to cash the ace of clubs to hold declarer to 11 tricks. I think this is the right defence, as South could have four or five hearts, although the lead might have been from QT8. When East exited passively with a trump, declarer was able to discard the club from dummy, and even guessed the queen of diamonds correctly to make 12 tricks. I think that if I did not have the queen of diamonds I might have led that suit, so South was right. We did not do a huge amount wrong, but ended with a 0% board.  Cashing out is never easy, as Abba might have said.