Jokered

Well my team has been mentioned twice in the NYT this week. Once for a hand in which I receive some slightly bad press here and once for coming in 3rd here. It's the second hand that I'd like to talk about, in the diagramed position below (hands rotated):

These are the jokers who are playing in the finals instead of us? First off, who bids Michaels with this hand? This is something you do when you're like 10 years old. And then who doesn't know that this second double is penalty? Anyway the hand is just extremely frustrating.

There was an interesting hand from our semifinal match against Italy in which you can pick up a big swing for aggressive bidding and good technique as declarer:

OK... so that's now really how the auction went. But it does make things more interesting. Can you spot the winning line? Often on these 'obscure' plays, the extra tricks seem to appear from nowhere. Solution to come later.