Sunday, February 22, 2004 8:31 AM

D.S.I.P. 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 and gives you the green light to bid. In fact , the pass has just the opposite meaning .

After partner has passed in a competitive auction and you wish to bid again with a decent hand , you have to 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 and suits to the limit . Quite often you will be sitting with 10-11 HCP’s and wondering what to do in a competitive auction. Trump stack penalty doubles were invented for punishing bad bidders. But what if you are playing a good teams where bad bidders do not exist ? Even good players get bad trump breaks but that is rare and the frequency of doubles that show “cards’ are far more frequent.

You have to get rid of the old mind set that penalty doubles show trump stacks and 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 and 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 and partner has KQ10 Qxxx AJ10xx x and says no thanks I would rather defend. 3♠ x goes for 300 as does 4♥ x . Change partners hand to xxx KQJx AQ10xx x and he says O.K. lets try 4♥ by pulling the double and that makes and 3♠ x is one down.

The advantage of this method over the “trump stack” warning method is that in 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 and it could be very wrong. The “permission to bid” double brings partners opinion into the decision making process. The biggest advantage 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 and 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♥. If partner wants to bid 4♥ he doubles and that gets converted for the nice juicy plus. If responder passed and opener has a trump stack double of 3♠ he must pass and 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 only be playing contracts doubled only if the doubler has a good hand and the other partner converts. That’s the trouble with trump stack doubles as the weak opener must reluctantly pass and 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” . You double with the trump stack and 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.

D.S.I.P. doubles are not for weak match point field and weak rubber Bridge games. Trump stack penalty doubles were invented for these games. These doubles assume good competition and the IMP scoring scale. All world class players play some variation of the D.S.I.P. double.