Sunday, May 14, 2006 6:12 AM

Hand Evaluation - Enforcer Mentality

PITBULLS:

“Buying into a concept” like D.S.I.P. competitive double theory needs a radical attitude adjustment. It is so contrary to the fundamentals of Bridge that have been around since the Whist days. If you felt that the opponents were too high because of general overall strength or a trump stack in their suit, you would double. This ended virtually all auctions so you would extract your penalty or not. I have written at length the disadvantages of this simple Bridge concept & why it does not work in competitive bidding. The penalty trump stack double should only be part of forcing pass theory in the minds of most experts or when they own the hand. Trump stack doubles are for beginners & should become extinct in competitive bidding.

Playing with an expert partner in the GNT recently , I had a hand that I had to draw an inference from the opponents bidding . I had a reasonably good defensive hand but lots of offense with a void in the opponents suit. My partner opened 1♦ ,they overcalled 1♥. I bid 1♠ , they bid 2♥ which was followed with a leap to 4♥. In standard bidding , I have to make a single handed decision for the partnership. This is because Bridge is played in a clockwise direction. With my void in their suit & my undisclosed diamond support , I have to make a decision for the partnership immediately. Bid 5♦ or pass with my void in their suit. If partner has no duplication of value in hearts , 5♦ would be tremendous sacrifice & might even make. However , what if partner does hold extreme duplication of value ? The dreaded pseudo sacrifice . Therefore , I doubled hoping partner would read the situation properly. She held AK9x of their trump so she passed. They were really overboard & went 3 down doubled in a freely bid game.

My partner said if I passed she would have made a penalty double in the pass out seat. This only occurs though if I had passed as it was my turn to bid first. However, what if partner held a distributional hand with defensive tricks that she would like to take offensive action if I did not hold duplication of value ? She would have to take single handed action to bid or pass without bringing me into the picture. A double saying let’s take some sort of action is not possible because penalty doubles are to end all auctions. A penalty or enforcer double in competitive auctions restricts freedom of movement so to speak. You still have the option of converting partners double from either side of the table so what are you losing playing D.S.I.P. competitive doubles ! Playing enforcer doubles puts a lot of pressure on the partnership. Say on the auction given above I held ♠Jxxxx ♥void ♦AJxxx ♣J10x am I to pull the enforcer double to 5♦ ? Partner has put me in a bad position. With her horrible duplication in hearts ( AK9x) we will get hurt very badly in 5♦X but 4♥X makes because I wipe out all of partners HCP’s in diamonds with my undisclosed fit. Partner’s hand on this auction was ♠xx ♥AK9x ♦KQJx ♣xxx so 4♥XX is an easy make for an overtrick.

D.S.I.P. theory needs getting used to. As Tom Gandolfo says , just do not do something stupid partner. D.S.I.P. competitive double theory was invented in part on splinter theory where ferreting out duplication of value is its purpose. D.S.I.P. works the same way as splinters. Does partner hold duplication in their suit or not ? The D.S.I.P. double takes out insurance for that possibility by bringing partner into the picture where trump stack penalty doubles ignore partner. Avid splinter advocates should be able to “buy into” D.S.I.P. theory as the thinking is similar.  Taking out insurance against people who make enforcer doubles which promote partials into games or bring punitive XX’s into play is not a bad idea either . J