Had a decent set with Buddy (it's weird to use that name, since Jeff and I have used it as a generic identifier for opponents when discussing hands for years) on Sunday.  The opponents didn't give many gifts so we had to go headhunting to earn a couple of tops.  I'm overdue for a haircut, so it seems appropriate that we made a couple of hairy doubles.

The first one was pretty nuts.

I picked up all red in 4th:

AQ9xxx / K / KT8 / xxx

Lefty opened 1 Diamond.  Righty bid 1NT.  I wasn't thrilled about it, but 2 Spades looked right.  That got passed around to Righty who bid 3 Diamonds.  That got passed around to Buddy, who whipped it.

I pictured some 2-5-2-4 8 or 9 count over there and passed without too much thought.

Buddy led a lowish Spade (I could see all but Jxxx and the Spade he led was the one in bold.)

KTx / xxx / QJ9xx / Kx

Wow.  That's a healthy dummy.

Now I'm pretty sure that Buddy only has a stiff Diamond.  If he whipped this with 3 Spades and a stiff Diamond, we're surely toast, so I've got to play him for xx or a singleton.

I cashed the top 2 Spades and everybody followed.  Now what?

K / xxx / QJ9xx / Kx

9xxx / K / KT8 / xxx

It's very tempting to get out of the way in Hearts in case Buddy has the Ace (what's he doubling on?) but it could be disastrous if he doesn't because then Declarer will likely just bang down the Ace of Diamonds (on the auction it sounds like Buddy has the Diamond length) and will be able to use the King of Spades later for a pitch.  (If I had looked a little deeper, I might have concluded that the pitch probably wouldn't do Declarer much good (he rates to be 2-4-4-3,) but give pard the stiff 7 of Diamonds and we can promote a 2nd trump trick with another Spade.)

I decided that we're always beating this if Buddy has the Ace of Hearts, and +200 should be enough.  My priority was getting that good Spade off the board while Buddy still has a trump.

I played the 9 of Spades and Declarer made my day by ruffing with ... the Ace!  My one trump trick had become two.

His decision was perfectly logical on the auction, just not successful.  He continued with a Diamond up (Buddy following with the 6) and I won the King and now got out of the way in Hearts (Declarer had Axxx.)

We ended up scoring 2 Spades, 2 Hearts and 2 Diamonds. +500 was good for all of the matchpoints.

Buddy had smashed this with:

xx / QJxxx / 6 / QJxxx

Yeah, it's often a good idea to double partscores with 1/2 a trick or so, just in case pard has 4 or 5 tricks over there.