Chopping the proferred neck!

[OliverC]

Sometimes Opps stick their neck out (unwisely), and it's essential to take them to the cleaners, if only to deter them from interfering too much in your next sequence. You are South, NS Vul, Dealer East.

South
A
KQJ42
J642
1054

Bidding
East         South        West       North
1           1            Pass         1
2           Pass           Pass         X
Pass         ??

We play this Double as Snapdragon, showing values and Clubs as well as Spades (and clearly no good Heart support, but probably a decent tolerance). I was tempted to bid a slow 3NT given the vulnerability (We also play Lebensohl in this kind of sequence), which would have worked out okay as 3NT comfortably comes to 9 or 10 tricks. Something made me pass this for penalties, however.

I led the Ace of Spades and knew I'd made the right decision when Dummy went down with

West
86432
85
73
J863

                      South
                      A
                      KQJ42
                      J642
                      1054

Partner encouraged and shows an even number of Spades with the 9. given the certainty of Declarer having at least 4 Hearts, I switched to a trump at trick 2 to partner's 9 and Declarer's Queen (so Partner must have the 10 as well). Declarer tried a small Club at trick 3 to Dummy's Jack and Partner's Queen. Partner did really well to continue the trump attack, but unexpectedly led back the 5, which marked Declarer with only AKQ8 in the suit (!!!). Declarer took their Ace and tried the 10 from hand, on which I discarded the 4 , and Partner won with the Jack. Partner now cashed the Ace of Hearts and King of Spades, bringing down Declarer's Queen, and then continued with a small Heart. I took my three Heart tricks, and exited with a Club to Partner's Ace (felling Declarer's King in the process) and now a Club through Declarer's K8 of Diamonds allowed me to ruff the 8 with my Jack. Declarer only took their top 3 trumps for -5 and +1100 to us, a 13 IMP top on the Board.

The complete hand:

                      North
                      KJ95
                      A6
                      1095
                      AQ92
West                                     East
86432                                Q107
85                                      10973
73                                      AKQ8
J863                                  K7
                      South
                      A
                      KQJ42
                      J642
                      1054

Absolutely no question that East was idiotic to rebid their Diamonds on such a flat hand. Moreover they could probably have saved one trick by just playing 4 rounds of Diamonds, eventually forcing me to open up the Clubs after we had taken our Heart tricks. Defending passively is a common technique to make Declarer open up suits, but it's an option open to Declarer as well. I would have been happy enough with +800 here (which is what I was expecting), but there's no question Declarer gave 1 needless trick away by leading the Black suits from her hand.