Sunday, May 13, 2007 7:02 PM

D.S.I.P. - One for the road

PITBULLS:

BJ Trelford dislikes trump stack doubles in competition period. If we do not own the hand & they run into a bad trump break , they play it undoubled unless partner can come up with a D.S.I.P. double for conversion purposes. Therefore , you can make a “one for the road double” . As long as it is a competitive auction & there were no D.S.I.P. doubles earlier , a subsequent double can still be D.S.I.P. The double shows the maximum for your previous bidding & you do not want to sell out. He wants to extend D.S.I.P. doubles to subsequent action also.

BJ gives these auctions

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1♠ 2♥ 2♠ dbl - does not indicate shortness but lack of duplication of value. Kokish calls cards in their suit that are equally good on offense as defense as “transferable values” With good controls you can make a DSIP double even with 4 spades ( nothing wasted ) as opposed to bidding 3♥ directly. How else can you show good cards with transferable values in their suit ?

If it goes

1♠-2♥-2♠-dbl

P-3♥-3♠-dbl is penalties. This is the one that you should use to push them up and dbl for penalties with your transferable values in their suit but not wastage per se. With wastage do not make a D.S.I.P. double in the first place.

1♠-2♥-2♠-3♥

P- P-3♠-dbl is DSIP shortness (Didn’t have enough for a DSIP the first time but at this level I have reconsidered.). One for the road so to speak as partner may still have spade duplication or you just might want to go down one in 4♥ vrs -140. ( Do not try this on the terrorist vul or you just pushed them into a vul game J

1♠-2♥-2♠-3♥

P-P-3♠ -? on this auction if you hold KQJT of trump you have to wait for partner to dbl. Your first 3♥ bid denied enough defense measured in quick tricks cards for a DSIP double , so how can you now have enough to dbl other than holding a trump stack ( their suit ) . You probably should not have bid 3♥ with that holding in their suit in the first place. You set partner up for pseudo sacrifices & games.

In other words , BJ says if partner competed or passed originally , a subsequent double is still D.S.I.P. The only time a subsequent double is penalty in a competitive auction is if either partner already made a D.S.I.P. double during the auction. Partner in effect has already described their defense , so trump stack doubles are now safe even in competition. This is a modification from our previous thinking in that we had all subsequent doubles as penalty except if partner had passed in competition.