If you double, the pressure is on

The second-most prolific author of bridge books is Ron Klinger from Australia. He is known for packing a lot of material into a small space. His latest book is “Defending Doubled Contracts” (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).

The complexity of the deals is variable, as are the levels of the contracts (the one-level to the seven-level) and the sizes of the available penalties (from down one to down six). All the deals occurred at the table; Klinger composed none himself.

In this deal, how did EastWest defend against five diamonds doubled after West led the spade king?

Many Souths would have opened three diamonds with the seven-card suit, hoping that a good heart fit did not exist. This South tried to catch up on the next round. If West had not doubled, maybe East would have bid six no-trump, which would have failed on a non-diamond lead; or six clubs, which could have been made; or, best of all, five no-trump pick a slam.

Sitting East-West were two Australian internationals, Ted Chadwick and David Beauchamp. Under West’s spade king, East dropped the nine, a suit-preference signal for hearts. (He wondered if West had led a singleton and thought it highly likely that West had the heart ace.)

West shifted to the heart deuce. East won with his king, returned the suit and received a ruff. Then he underled his club ace to give partner the lead for a fourth round of hearts, East overruffing dummy’s diamond queen with his king.

Have you been counting? That was the first six tricks for East-West, resulting in down four and plus 800.

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