Monday, May 26, 2003 12:36 AM

D.S.I.P. Part Trois

PITBULLS:

When you and partner have a big fit , a penalty double is a D.S.I.P. bid . You do not automatically leave it in accordance with the platitude “do not pull my penalty doubles” . A hand form the sectional really brings this point across . I am playing with Pitbull Pat and it goes 1♦ to my right and I overcall a spade vul vrs nv. Dann Kramer bids 2♠ showing a limit raise or better in diamonds and Pat bids 3♠ . This gets passed around to Mr. Kramer who doubles . You hold

K	K	K	A
	x	10	x
	x	9	x
		8
		x
		x

so what should you do ? The opponents are vul so the magic +200 is better then your 4♦ for +130 . Wait a minute ! Partners double says Do Something Intelligent Partner . You could have 3 or 4 diamonds on this auction and you have 6 . So your 10 HCP in diamonds got obliterated for defensive purposes & you are down to a 10 count . Leaving the double in is risky . So you should pull but to what ? Your 6 card suit should run in NT . If partner has the spade Ace , you have 9 tricks in 3NT ! You bid 3NT and you get +400. Passing gets you –730 for the infamous double game swing.

Pulling penalty doubles requires good judgment . Length in partners suit , vulnerability , length in their suit and controls are all factors to be taken into consideration. You have to have a reason to pull partners penalty double but do it when you have to.

Another hand that showed bad judgment in forcing pass situations came up in the sectional

x	K	K	v
x	10	Q	o
x	9	J	i
x	8	10	d
		9

1♠ by partner and you bid 4♣ . Pat bids 5♣ and opener bids 6♣ . I bid 7♣ and its around to you at the 7 level . Forcing pass theory obviously applies here . You have no more then you announced and partner is inviting 7 . You are Ace less with bad trump . Why not pass that information along to partner by doubling . The expert at my table passed and opener went wrong by bidding 7♠ . Pat thought she could beat the hand with KQJ of trump so she doubled. I could not pull to 8♣ so she was safe.

Forcing pass theory is D.S.I.P. but it requires partner to give the appropriate message by passing or doubling . Usually the swings are in the +14 IMP range or higher . Passing when you should be doubling will set partner up to make the wrong decision . Its amazing how many times the wrong partner is blamed in these disaster auctions .

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