Sitting West, your double will surely give your side a top result. How can it lose?

Being short in North’s suit, South might have bid two spades rather than three diamonds, forcing a rebid. Four spades seemed like a reasonable contract to South until he heard the double by West.

West led the queen of clubs, and South won the ace and continued with a club to the king in dummy. When West followed with the Jack of clubs, South decided to play him for five spades and two clubs. South saw that if West’s red-suit distribution was 3-3, he could make his contract despite the spade break.

South cashed the ace and king of hearts, carefully sluffing his winning 10 of clubs on the second heart trick. Next came the ace and king of diamonds and a diamond ruff in the dummy, followed by a heart ruff in his hand.

West was down to nothing but trump, so South led his last diamond. West had to ruff with a trump honor to avoid having dummy over-ruff with the six. West had to exit with a high trump. South won with the ace, and he now held the nine, eight and seven of trump, while West was down to the king, queen and three.

West could only get his two high spades, and the doubled contract was made with the loss of only three trump tricks.

Donna Swan is a resident of Longboat Key, an ardent bridge player and an American Contract Bridge League certified director who plays “for the fun of it.”

WHERE TO PLAY

Bayfront Park
Recreation Center

Duplicate bridge games are at 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact Larry Auerbach at 758-2017 to reserve your spot.

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