Friday Duplicate - Board 26 - Doubling 1NT

Looking through the results from Friday's duplicate - the contracts on this board surprised me the most (excluding the hand where I was in 6 diamonds missing the Ace and King of trumps!) Exactly half the field played in 2 Hearts making 9 or 10 tricks.

As South you should double East's 1NT bid promising 16 or more points.

What, then is poor West to do - vulnerable and no doubt feeling a little uncomfortable? Well, you could stick it out and hope North bids, but that is unlikely. North is almost certain to know that their side has the balance of the points and should pass. So, as West, do something - bid your best suit. You can hardly make things any worse and who knows you might find that North/South can't remember whether a second double is take out or penalties and they do the wrong thing. They may try for their own game, or you might even find a much better contract for yourselves.

At our table West was stoic and passed. As the cards lay, East, in spite of her maximum 1NT opening bid was looking at 3 down, -800 and no matchpoints.