Tuesday, May 22, 2007 10:42 PM
Doubt Showing Redoubles
If you feel the blue
redouble card in your bidding box is under-employed,
you may want to consider adopting some of the inventive new agreements now
being used by expert pairs. Some
of these gadgets are fairly complex, and for casual partnerships, they may be
little more than a minus 1600 just waiting to happen. If you have the time to
discuss them with a regular partner,
though, these innovations can be valuable
additions to your system.
The
doubt-showing redouble
One of the more creative new uses for the
redouble is after an opponent doubles your notrump contract to request the lead
of a specific suit. Suppose you hold
S-J753 H-A7 D-KQ3 C-A942
and the auction goes:
Partner RHO
You LHO
1C
Pass
1S Pass
1NT
Pass
3NT DBL
Pass
Pass ?
The double asked for the lead of dummy’s
first-bid suit (spades). If the doubler has AKQ102, you’re down off the top. He
could, however, have a less-solid holding (AKQ98 or KQ1096, for example), with
your partner having the missing honor. If so, your hand is probably strong
enough to take nine tricks with just one stopper.
This is where the doubt-showing redouble
comes in handy. Instead of guessing whether partner has a helpful card, you
redouble to ask him. To evaluate his spade holding, partner should play you for
at least 10xxx. If he also has an honor – on this deal, even 10x – he knows
there’s at least a slow stopper and he passes. With only low cards in the
critical suit, he’s obliged to run.
Some pairs prefer to make the
notrump bidder the one responsible for the doubt-showing message, and this is
an option you’ll want to cover in your partnership discussion. In the auction
above, partner (opener) would redouble to warn you of a weak spade holding -- a
hand such as
S-42
H-K98 D-A104 C-KQ853
If he passes the double, he promises 10x
or better. Note that when the redoubler is not the original bidder of the critical suit,
he shows only low cards (no partial stopper). To leave this redouble in, you
need a full stopper and enough length or intermediate spots to survive a lead
through your holding.
Other
uses
You can also extend the doubt-showing
message to other auctions. The general agreement is that if our 3NT contract is
doubled -- and if there’s a potential weakness we haven’t already investigated – then
a redouble shows doubt. It’s up to the redoubler’s partner to work out the
exact problem. Here’s an example:
LHO Partner
RHO You
Pass
Pass
1S 3S
Pass
3NT
DBL ?
Your 3S showed a long running minor and
asked partner to bid 3NT with a spade stopper. After the double, though, you
could invoke the doubt-showing redouble with S-2 H-1072
D-52 C-AKQJ876
You might have had an outside trick or
two for your jump cuebid, so this hand is dead minimum. Since partner has
already confirmed a full stopper, he’ll know that isn’t your concern. Your
redouble should suggest your problem is a lack of outside strength, which means partner
needs other stoppers and a quick trick to leave the double in.
The
caveats
One drawback of adding this agreement to
your system is that you have to give up the business redouble. This is not a
big sacrifice for most pairs. When was the last time you needed to redouble 3NT
to get a good score?
The more serious problem – and it’s
a big one – is that a little science can be a dangerous thing. The
doubt-showing redouble can be spectacularly successful when it’s right, but it
forces you into an all-or-nothing position. If either of you misreads the
situation, it will be a very expensive misunderstanding.
If your partnership decides to use these
redoubles, you’ll want to develop clear understandings about when the
doubt-showing meaning is “on” and “off”. It’s probably a good idea to set your
default to “always on” and focus your discussion just on the exceptions. One
obvious exception should be an auction like:
You LHO
Partner RHO
1D
2C
2NT Pass
3NT
DBL
Pass Pass
RDBL
Here, your opponent’s double says “lead
my suit, partner”. Your redouble, though, should not be doubt-showing because there’s no new information to
consider. Both of you already knew about LHO’s club suit, partner has
guaranteed a full stopper, and if you had fears about notrump, you wouldn’t
have freely raised to game. This redouble is to play, based on a “surprise”
source of tricks (long running diamonds) and confidence that you’ll collect an
even bigger number if they run to 4C.
In the next issue: Stopper-showing redoubles
© 2005 Karen Walker