I’ve been reading Larry Cohen’s “To Bid or Not to Bid” about the Law of Total Tricks and it is interesting to see what it suggests in terms of bidding 5H here (I suspect the answer is DON’T even though declarer could actually have made 5H). I’m still stunned by South’s failure to double 4S, though – did he expect EW to escape to 5C?
Does anyone have access to “Deep Finesse” which can give a double dummy assessment of whether contracts can make or go off (and by how many)? 4S X might only go one off tbf (DA, ruff, H back, D ruff) but I’d be interested in the results.
Regards,
Iain
Jeff SerandosMay 6th, 2026 at 2:23 am
Hi Iain,
IT seemed odd to me too that South did not double. Funny though, if East takes the plunge in 5C, it goes down much the same way. Underlead in hearts and North can lead AD and another to set it. I think it’d be pretty hard for North to mess it up. What ELSE could South have in mind?
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HI Barry, Folks,
I’ve been reading Larry Cohen’s “To Bid or Not to Bid” about the Law of Total Tricks and it is interesting to see what it suggests in terms of bidding 5H here (I suspect the answer is DON’T even though declarer could actually have made 5H). I’m still stunned by South’s failure to double 4S, though – did he expect EW to escape to 5C?
Does anyone have access to “Deep Finesse” which can give a double dummy assessment of whether contracts can make or go off (and by how many)? 4S X might only go one off tbf (DA, ruff, H back, D ruff) but I’d be interested in the results.
Regards,
Iain
Hi Iain,
IT seemed odd to me too that South did not double. Funny though, if East takes the plunge in 5C, it goes down much the same way. Underlead in hearts and North can lead AD and another to set it. I think it’d be pretty hard for North to mess it up. What ELSE could South have in mind?
Cheers,
Jeff