A Double Game Swing #12-06

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

with Larry Matheny

It’s bad enough when your opponents make a doubled contract. But it’s even worse when you are in a team game and your teammates also go minus. Here is a deadly double game swing.

Scoring: IMPs (Teams)

#12-06
Dlr	S
Vul	E/W

	K1042
	987543
	7
	42

	7
	AKQ102
	Q532
	976

/images/pad.bmp

	J653
	J
	AKJ864
	K5

	AQ98
	6
	109
	AQJ1083

West	North	East	South
			1
1	Pass	3NT	4
DBL	Pass	Pass	Pass

BIDDING: After South opened the bidding, West made a routine overcall and East jumped to 3NT. Taking advantage of the favorable vulnerability, South competed to the four-level. For some strange reason, West made a penalty double. He had no extras, no surprise for South, and no reason to double.

PLAY: West led the ace of hearts and then shifted to his singleton spade. Declarer won in his hand and led a diamond. East won and gave his partner a spade ruff. It was now easy for declarer to ruff the heart return, ruff a diamond in dummy, take the winning club finesse, and write +510 in his scorecard.

At the other table, E/W played in 5 and lost only the two black aces. This was worth +600 and combined with the +510 totaled +1110 and a 15 IMP swing.