Who Dares Wins
You hold the West hand and South opens 1S. What would you do?
Board 7 from Thursday 28/02/2019
Dealer S All Vul
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J752
T52
QT
J954The days of the classical takeout double to guarantee support for all the other suits are long gone, as far as I know anyway. The West hand is perfect for a ‘major oriented’ takeout double when South opens 1S. No problem can possibly arise if East bids clubs, because then West can bid diamonds. As it happens, East has a great heart suit and, knowing that West has four of them, can bid hearts as high as is necessary. North will probably bid either 2S or 3S depending on how NS play their ‘Truscott’ or variation of it. Now it becomes a question of ‘who dares wins’ and how high either side is prepared to contest the auction. I would suggest that the ‘par’ spot is 4S doubled, which will be down one unless declarer leads the jack of clubs through East and subsequently drops the doubleton ten from West. The better line in clubs is to simply lay down the ace and king and hope the queen falls.
If you were EW and bid to 4H, you would (should) have made your game for a 90+ % result on the board. If you were NS and bid to 3S and made 3 or 4, you too would have scored extremely well. If you were an EW pair who just bid diamonds, you should learn more about major oriented doubles and exactly how to make the best use of them.
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