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Assess the blame here.


Lord Molyb

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[hv=pc=n&s=sj95h843dkt98643c&w=saq6haqjt952dca54&n=st87432hd5ckjt982&e=skhk76daqj72cq763&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=3ddppp]399|300[/hv]

Declarer went down 4 on the lead of the queen of hearts. -800 when E/W can make 6 and a club ruff prevents 7.

So, which of east and west is to blame here? It is match points, by the way.

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West is 100% to blame.

The double is atrocious.

 

Clear 4 call.

I prefer 3 to double.

 

Hell, I prefer 3N to double...

Yep. After 4H, East is in the spotlight and should probably make a move. West can look at his hand and pretty much predict the double has a high probability of three green cards following.

 

At the club, I suspect many Easts won't come to the party after 4H, and your result would be above average; but I doubt it will be duplicated.

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Agree double is bad, but ..

 

Is anyone willing to give east 1% for the final pass? At this vulnerability, he must hold 3 to five tricks to do better than his game. Should he consider 3NT? After all, partner need not have all three aces. If north holds just one, suddenly we are looking at +500 against +630 or so, not a good result at matchpoints.

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Agree double is bad, but ..

 

Is anyone willing to give east 1% for the final pass? At this vulnerability, he must hold 3 to five tricks to do better than his game. Should he consider 3NT? After all, partner need not have all three aces. If north holds just one, suddenly we are looking at +500 against +630 or so, not a good result at matchpoints.

West is responsible for the table result. Many posters assign a total of more than 100 percent when assessing blame, and they don't necessarily do it to be funny.

 

This hand is obviously much more awkward to engineer to the right spot than if the opponents were silent. I would not be surprised if E/W actually scored above average on the board. After a 4H overcall: we might be debating East's judgement as advancer, West's continuations, and/or the rub of the green (7H-1).

 

If West had some semblance of the expectation for a double of 3D, East was probably guessing Declarer to manage 4 or 5 tricks at most. If Declarer could actually take 6 tricks, then posters (including myself) would undoubtedly assign some percentage of the blame to East's pass ---more than 1%, but most of the blame would go to the shuffler or whoever botched the defence.

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West is clearly at fault, but....

 

East should suspect that his side may be able to make a slam. If West truly has a real double of 3, East has a lot of stuff. For his side to hold declarer to 5 tricks it almost has to mean that his side has a slam. And if his side cannot hold declarer to 5 tricks then bidding 3NT will score better than passing 3x.

 

This is a much closer decision than most are making it out to be.

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