Unwise


5
10 6 5 4
K J 3 2
A 9 3 2
A K J 9 7 4 3 2
A Q 3
A Q 8 10 9 7 6 5 4
6 4 K Q J 8
Q 10 8 6
K J 9 8 7 2
------ Vulnerability: None
10 7 5 Opening lead: A of spades

East SouthWestNorth
Pass Pass 1 Dbl
3 4 4 Pass
Pass 5 Dbl All pass

Disaster. E-W picked up an IMP score of 10.56, the pair in second place picking up 5.38. Could this have been foreseen and should it have been? Absolutely. And the goat is the bidder who bid the same values twice. Some might fault North for a rather skimpy takeout double, albeit with good distribution. Perhaps. But when South is looking at a pretty good trump holding, shouldn't that have been as much of an incentive to settle for a double of their 4 spades?
I don't know and have already said that I don't like to hector too much on bidding styles. Still, South, though with a powerful heart suit opposite that promise of some hearts, still has three small clubs. And how many tricks do they need at that vulnerability? And of course the answer is 9. And given that North hasn't promised the World's Fair and given that South has some defensive values in a spade contract and that his parther might have some good defensive tickets, the bid is chancey at best.
But most important, South had bid all his values with a jump to four hearts. Isn't that enough? How many times does he wanna say, "Hey, pd, I've got some pretty good hearts!"?
Further, declarer exacerbated the damage by declining the heart finesse, going up with the K! Hindsight? Now, hold on. Going up with the K works only if West has a stiff Q, while the finesse works if East has a once- or twice-guarded Q. Making the finesse about twice as appealing as playing for a stiff Q, I would say. And wait. I'm not done. Declarer also lost a second spade that he might have ruffed out. Down 800 against non-vul opponents who'd have their own problems at the 4 level.
Six declarers went down in 4 spades! You can see that the spade bidders will hafta lose a spade, a club and it looks a lot like two diamonds. But suppose second hand goes up on the first round of clubs. Ah, declarer escapes losing 2 diamnds.
Such is the chance you take when you -- substantially -- bid both directions. When you say, I'm reasonably confident that they can make 10 tricks in spades and I 9 tricks in hearts. That's a lot of presuming, especially when you had your chance to announce powerful hearts. Isn't it time to leave it up to partner?