Friday, June 20, 2003 2:32 AM

Penalty Doubles - One level

 

PITBULLS:

 

            Expert players who can defend should not have an aversion to defending one level contracts doubled . Sometimes these are the bloodiest penalties and game is sometimes questionable your way. The redouble in Bridge most often signals no fit and says “let me at them” . Even if your philosophy is lots of negative or D.S.I.P. doubles at the one and two level , the redouble is certainly a special case where penalty doubles are the order of the day.

 

Andrew Speers brought up a hand where the concept of preparing for a one level double is highlighted.

 

x

x

A

x

x

x

K

x

 

 

Q

x

 

 

x

x

 

 

x

 

 

 

 

 

       Everybody vul and partner opens 1♣ in 4th seat . You bid a diamond and your LHO  backs in with a double . Partner redoubles which is punitive and promises no fit . Your RHO passes and it is your bid . Think of what is going on here. You have 9 HCP   instead  of 6 and they are all concentrated in diamonds where partner is short and expects your points to be . True your 4 clubs do not help the defensive cause but you are doubleton in both majors. This means that if partner is 4-4 in the majors the opponents are on a Moysean at best.Think of card location. Partners majors are located behind the majors in the doubler’s hand. This could kill honour cards and major suit finesses will all lose. Now think HCP . LHO is a passed hand and probably has 10 . Partner who redoubled can be 16-20 . This means you out gun them horribly in HCP and the worst case scenerio for them is that your side has 29 HCP .

 

            Peter Jones says he might double with the diamond hand  if RHO bids a major since he smells blood . I would pass and when partner doubles I would be more then happy to defend . This could be very ugly for the opponents. Just as an example , lets construct a possible hand for the doubler of one of a major.

                                                         

K

K

J

Q

Q

J

10

 

x

x

9

 

x

x

x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A

A

x

A

J

Q

 

J

10

10

 

x

9

9

 

x

 

 

 

 

         They end up in 1♥X and your trump lead is mandatory . Partner wins a small heart and leads  a diamond . You win and lead another heart .Declarer tries the heart jack and the queen wins . Partner cashes the heart Ace and the club Ace and leads the 4th heart and declarer wins the King. Declarer leads a diamond and you win and come back a spade. Declarer will be lucky to come out with 3 tricks . That is +1100 .  3NT might even go down your way !  We could vary the cards and the result could be +1700 to +500 . We gave the board 12 HCP and the redoubler only 16 HCP. It could be a lot worse.

 

O.K. back up and what does a bid of 2♦ mean after partner redoubles . If you bid in front of an impending penalty doubles this means that you are weak and distributional and you would have pulled the double . If you pass first and then pull the double it is from a position of strength not weakness ( the same forcing pass criteria as high level contracts ). You probably have a monstrous club fit and you want to bid your grand or small slam in clubs .  Say you had xx x Axxxx KQ109x  which will lead you to +1370 in clubs . You pull the double to 3♣ and you are on your way.

 

I notice a lot of people shunning low level doubles and I think it goes back to their “puppyhood” in Bridge development where one level doubled contracts did not yield good results. That was because you did not know how to defend !!