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Maastricht, Netherlands, Olympiad 2000. Unfortunately the Egyptian west on this hand has remained anonymous. He paid a high price for his greed, being clearly unfamiliar with the expression 'to have a goose on a string'. In bridge the expression means: 'Do not warn the opponents by doubling when they have ended up in the wrong contract, if they can still bid a better contract'.
Germany's Dirk Schröder gratefully accepted the Egyptian present.
| E/NS | ♠ | A K Q 4 | | | | ♥ | J 6 4 | | ♦ | 7 5 | | ♣ | A J 6 2 | | ♠ | 9 6 3 |  | ♠ | 10 8 7 | | ♥ | K Q 8 7 2 | ♥ | -
| | ♦ | 8 4 3 | ♦ | K 10 9 6 | | ♣ | Q 3 | ♣ | 10 9 8 7 5 4 | | | ♠ | J 5 2 | | | ♥ | A 10 9 5 3 | | ♦ | A Q J 2 | | ♣ | K |
| West | North | East | South |
|---|
| | Marsal
| | Schröder
| | - | - | pass | 1♥ | pass
| 1♠ | pass | 2♦ | pass
| 3♣ | pass | 3♠ | pass
| 4♥ | pass | 4NT
| pass
| 5♥ | pass | 6♥ | | double | pass
| pass
| 6NT
| | double | pass | pass
| pass |
Schröder knew he was (too?) optimistic when bidding 6♥. North's 5♥-bid showed two key cards (out of five: the four aces and trump king, ♥K therefore) and denied ♥Q. Schröder knew therefore either ♥K or ♠A was missing. If north had neither ♥K nor ♥J there would be two heart losers (even with ♥J in north that was possible, as it shows). And if north did have ♥K (possibly only with two small hearts), south risked losing a heart and ♠A. Not to mention a possible diamond or spade loser.
After west's (naive) double Schröder concluded north had ♠A and bad hearts. Thus Schröder fled to 6NT. West doubled this contract as well, albeit a little less confidently. He led ♣Q to south's king. Schröder crossed to dummy with a spade and took the diamond finesse. When it succeeded, his prospects looked a bit better. He cashed all his black tricks, ending in dummy, and repeated the diamond finesse. He was down to ♥A109 and ♦A in hand en ♥J64 ♣6 in dummy.
Now he had to choose: if west (who had done well by discarding hearts on the fourth spade and third club) had begun with 'only' four hearts, he would now be down to ♥KQ bare and two diamonds. The winning line then would be to play a heart (the report does not state whether east had played ♦K in trick two, that would have been a nice card).
But Schröder 'read' the position well: west probably had doubled on all five hearts and therefore now still had ♥KQx and one diamond. First Schröder cashed ♦A and then played ♥9 from his hand. West won but had to play back in the heart tenace: twelve tricks and 1680 points to NS. A lot more than the -100 they would have scored by playing 6♥ - undoubled(!). A nice 'detail': the double on 6♥ not only drove NS to a makeable contract but also pointed out the winning line of play in 6NT. |