Goren bridge: Lead directing double works

Today’s deal was played recently in Europe, where players experiment with bidding ideas not usually seen in North America. North’s onespade response, denying a major suit, is one such idea. North-South bid to a normal contract only to be doubled by East. This was a leaddirecting double, asking for the lead of dummy’s first bid suit, in this case spades. North, with a huge unknown club fit with partner, ran to four clubs and South raised to game. West duly led the four of spades to East’s ace, and East continued with the queen of spades to South’s king. South cashed the ace and king of clubs, then cashed two high diamonds and led a diamond for a ruff in his hand. East could do what he wanted with the master trump, but he could not defeat the contract.

Looking at the effect of the double, three no trump can be made on a spade lead, but the winning line is far from clear and declarer might have gone down. Without the double, however, West would probably have led the queen of diamonds, and three no trump would have romped home, perhaps with an overtrick. In this case, the lead-directing double did no worse than break even for East-West and might have gained a little bit.