Dear Ed and Peter,

If you bid 4♥, and they get 7 tricks, how many did you go down?

thanks,
Pat

Reply Ed Hoogenkamp (South)

Dear Pat,

You have to make ten tricks, so you can afford to lose three. You lost seven so you are down four (7 - 3 = 4).

Vulnerable undoubled you score: - 400
Vulnerable doubled you score: - 1100
Not vulnerable, undoubled you score: - 200
Not vulnerable doubled you score: - 800

I know the numbers of the doubled undertricks very well, playing with Peter...

Saludos desde Bracelona.
 

Reply Peter van der Linden (North)

Dear Pat,

Thank you very much for your question. It has made Ed very happy, for this is the kind of question Ed can — and likes to — answer. It gave him the opportunity to dust off his abacus.
I think it is especially considerate that you didn't ask how much you go down if they make eleven tricks. After all, that would mean (a) making calculations with higher numbers than ten; (b) subtracting scarily high numbers (11 - 3 = down eight) and (c) ending up with dazzling scores like -2300. Ed could not have handled that, meaning that (again) I would have had to answer.

Of course Ed is right when he says he knows the numbers of the doubled undertricks very well. Three guesses how he knows... Keep in mind that I underbid by at least two tricks if he is to declare. A shame he doesn't do the same — if he is to declare, that is...

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