Tuesday, November 01, 2005 11:17 PM

Hand Evaluation – Doubles ( Bidding Freedom )

PITBULLS:

When partner has had a chance to make a D.S.I.P. double in a competitive auction but does not , all gloves are off. You can bid your suit , a new suit , good-bad 2NT or Q bid without the chance of partner punishing you. Why , because the negative inference that you did not make a D.S.I.P double comes into play . You cannot be bidding constructively or else you would have doubled initially. With this “protection” comes some freedom in your choice of bids. Bidding again with a good hand & defensive values is repugnant to D.S.I.P. competitive double theory. You may have just rescued the opponents from disaster. Bidding again ( non double) implies a lack of defense.

My partner used this inference to invent a D.S.I.P. Q bid . This Q bid meant Do Something Intelligent Partner as I want to compete somewhere but without defensive values or a preponderance of HCP’s. I cannot hold values or I would have made a D.S.I.P. double instead. Partner had ♠Qx ♥QJ109 ♦109876x ♣x , the auction ( everybody vul) went

1♠-P-1NT-DBL

2♣-2♦-2♠-P

P-? . A double here would be a classic D.S.I.P. double saying I have defense & would like to bid again. Partner was not sure if he wanted to compete again in diamonds or hearts but he did not want to sell out to 2♠ as we should hold half the deck. 6-4’s are nice playing hands so we should not get punished at the 3 level. On the spot he bid 3♣ , which he meant as take some action partner but I am weak , distributional so do not get too excited. A D.S.I.P. double without defense without actually making a double !

The D.S.I.P. double inference allows you the freedom to bid your distribution to the hilt. Partner will not take another bid based on your bidding. Bidding new suits , Q bidding , NT bids can never be forward going. This freedom is nice for pushing them up without fear of partner making penalty doubles or “taking you seriously” . This means that partner does not take you for extra by bidding again. You can compete without fear of misleading partner which invariably happens not playing competitive doubles. Free bids do not exist to show a good hand or else you would have doubled or used the “good bad 2NT” at the two level. I think this is why Tom Gandolfo likes D.S.I.P. competitive double theory . These doubles give him still another excuse to bid while keeping partner quiet at the same time J .