A warned man counts…

Hi all

Here’s a game from one of Dombo’s teams matches last week. It’s a nice deal to analyze. If I could only bring up the concentration to do this during a match instead of post mortem.

North
74
AJ43
K4
QJT95
South
A8
T985
A862
A74

South had to play 4 doubled. During the auction West interfered with some number of and East finally doubled 4. West starts with the King. Plan the play!

Let’s do this together. Trumps are very likely to be 1-4 both honours offside, a loser, are soft and the have to be tackled as well. Ducking the lead doesn’t do much harm, the continuation is for your Ace. Draw one round of trumps by running the Ten. East plays back a for the King in dummy. Tackle the now, the Queen and Jack hold but West discards the 2nd round. So trumps and are 1-4.

This gets complicated.

North
AJ4
4
T95
South
985
A86
A

Cash the Ace and ruff a small with the Ace. East discards something. Cross to the Ace and ruff a with the Jack. East will overruff, but now South has only trumps left, resulting in three trump tricks in your hand, one in dummy, three tricks, two in and the Ace of .

Full deal:

South Dealer
EW Vul
North
74
AJ43
K4
QJT95
West
KQT652
7
QT953
8
East
J93
KQ62
J7
K632
South
A8
T985
A862
A74

Without the double South will probably play va banque, double finesse in , and nemesis will overcome him. I wouldn’t double them, maybe it will gain +100 (or an unlikely +300), but warning the opponents into a thoughtful magic plan is a very bad thing.