Sunday, February 22, 2004
8:31 AM
Hand Evaluation - Permission to Bid
PITBULLS:
If
you have bought into D.S.I.P. double theory , you know there is no such thing
as an ‘enforcer” type trump stack doubles in competitive
auctions. A failure to double does
not mean that there is no duplication of value so gives you the green light to bid. In fact , the pass has
just the opposite meaning .
After
partner has passed in a competitive auction , you wish to bid again with a
decent defensive hand ask his permission
by doubling. If partner’s hand is suitable offensively,
he will take the push
otherwise the partnership will go for a plus in the doubled contract.
Good players , using the law of
total tricks , push their fit & suits to the limit . Quite often you will
be sitting with 10-11 HCP’s but wondering what to do in a competitive auction.
Trump stack penalty doubles were invented for punishing
bad bidders. But what if you are playing good teams
where bad bidders do not exist ? Even good players get bad trump breaks but
that is rare so the frequency of doubles that show “cards’ are far more
frequent. Now it
comes down to which double is more
useful to you , trump stack or competitive.
You
have to get rid of the old mind set
that penalty doubles show trump stacks
. Also get rid of the notion that a pass encourages taking another bid in a
competitive auction because “partner did not double for penalty” . This was the
thinking around the time Bridge was invented
but does not apply against good competition in
today’s game.
Some
example auctions 1♦ - 1♠
- Dbl – 2♠
3♥ - 3♠ - ?
♠xx ♥Axxx ♦Kxx ♣QJxx
You want to bid 4♥ but if
partner has an unsuitable hand. you would rather defend. You double , partner has ♠KQ10
♥Qxxx ♦AJ10xx ♣x says no thanks I would rather defend. 3♠ x goes for 300 as does 4♥ x
. Change partners hand to ♠xxx ♥KQJx ♦AQ10xx ♣x , he says O.K. lets try 4♥ by pulling the double so that makes . 3♠ x is one down.
The
advantage of this method over the “trump stack” warning method is that in old competitive auctions single handed decisions
have to be made. If responder thinks their side can make 4♥, he must
make the decision for the partnership
but it could be very wrong. The
“permission to bid” double brings partners
opinion into the decision making process. The biggest advantage of
this concept though is taking the ambiguity
out of the penalty double.
Knowing that the double always shows “cards” rather than a trump stack, gives you a competitive advantage.
Change
responders hand to ♠KQ10 ♥Kxxx ♦xx ♣Q10xx with the same auction , 3♠ is passed around to partner. If he has an unsuitable
hand for defense or bidding 4♥ , you
will be defending 3♠
undoubled. Not the optimum result
but better then taking a minus in 4♥. The system fixed you. If partner wants to bid 4♥ , he doubles so that gets converted for the nice
juicy plus. If responder passed & opener has a trump stack double of 3♠, he must
pass & take a plus. Doubling will most likely get partner to pull to 4♥ not
want you want. D.S.I.P. doubles are sound in theory , as the opponents will be playing contracts
doubled only if the doubler has a
good hand and
the other partner converts with a trump stack.
That’s one of the problems with trump stack doubles, as the weak opener must reluctantly pass
so with the hint on how to play the hand
, the contract quite often makes or only a small penalty is extracted.
Traditional penalty doubles are done
“backwards” in my opinion. You double with the trump stack so the
other hand regardless of the nature of the
hand has to leave it in. Quite often a recipe for disaster as they
wrap up the double if not pulled. The D.S.I.P. conversion makes sure there are defensive values in
the other hand as well as the bad trump break in the converters hand. Taking
out insurance for defeating the contract so to speak.
D.S.I.P.
doubles are not for weak match point
field or weak rubber Bridge games. Trump stack penalty doubles were invented for these games. These
doubles assume good competition with the IMP
scoring scale. All world class players play some variation of the D.S.I.P. double in
todays game. Quoting a recent Bridge World , Eric Rodwell said “we all play
these doubles now”.