Let’s say you’re West and the bidding goes as shown. Whether you should double four spades depends almost entirely on how familiar you are with South’s card-playing skills.

If he is a good cardplayer, you will do best in the long run by passing. A double would alert him to the fact that the trumps were stacked against him, and this in turn might enable him to make the contract by means of an endplay.

But if South is not a skilled player, the double would probably work out OK. He might be the type who wouldn’t recognize an endplay if it bit him on the nose, in which case he would lose three trump tricks and a diamond and go down one.

The hand actually occurred in a masters pairs championship, and quite a few Wests doubled four spades. How successful they were depended on how well South adapted to the challenge.

Those declarers who appreciated the significance of the double executed a trump endplay and made the contract. The sequence of plays varied, but in general it followed this pattern:

South won the heart lead with the ace, cashed the A-K of clubs and then played the king of diamonds. West took the ace and led another heart. Declarer won with dummy’s king, ruffed a club, cashed the Q-J of diamonds, discarding his remaining heart, and ruffed dummy’s last diamond.

To this point, nine tricks had been played, and the defense had won only one of them. South’s remaining cards were the A-J-9-8 of spades, while West had the K-Q-10-5. When South next led the jack of spades, West found it impossible to win more than two trump tricks, and the contract was home.

Tomorrow >> Famous Hand.

— Steve Becker