Wednesday, January 10, 2007 6:40 PM

Hand Evaluation - Penalty Doubles ( Misfits )

PITBULLS:

Penalty doubles or converting for penalty is a hand evaluation skill. There are some guidelines to assist you in making penalty doubles. ♠AK87 ♥AKxxx ♦xx ♣Jx so you open 1♥ & partner bids 2♥ so you decide that your hand is too flat to attempt a game try. You pass & the opponents balance 2♠. Balancing is a risky business so sometimes the balancer loses. First you evaluate the balance of power between the two sides . Partner shows 6-9 HCP so you out gun them quite significantly in HCP as they might only have 16 HCP total between their two hands to your 24 HCP. Evaluate your own hand for defensive capabilities. You have a defensive hand pattern 5-4-2-2 , You have 4 “quick tricks” instead of soft values. You have length in their trump suit with 15 HCP’s. All hand evaluation indicators point to a penalty double as the decision to make. 2♠X goes for +1100 with best defense as partner had 9 HCP & was not about to punish you for opening in 3^rd seat. The Tormenttee did not evaluate her hand properly for defensive purposes & bid 3♥. This bid is for offensive hands as opposed to defensive hand types. This particular decision is what hand evaluation is all about. The 3♥ contract made for +140.

One of the purposes of a penalty double is to show “duplication of value” in the enemy suit. This duplication of value could discourage slam or even game bidding with otherwise good hands. One of main requirements for a penalty double besides this duplication of value is overall strength. You do not double the only contract you can beat as you are just assisting the opponents to find a better spot. With this requirement , all penalty doubles setup a forcing pass to the next round. Partner can not pass , so must bid if she can not make a penalty double.

A Tormentee held this hand in matchpoints. I opened 1NT , Tom Gandolfo overcalled 2♠. The Tormentee held ♠xxx ♥Axx ♦Axxx