Friday, June 22, 2007 12:28 AM

Penalty Doubles – Patterns

PITBULLS:

All expert defenders apply patterns to all hands when they are defending – no exceptions. If you have not developed this excellent habit or you are in the process of developing this habit , do your partnership a huge favour by applying patterns in all doubled contracts. Penalty doubles equals compulsory application of patterns.

The auction goes 1♠-P-1NT-P

P-2♦-2♥-P

P-X-P-P

Partner converts for penalty and leads the ♦J . The board hits with ♠Q10xxx ♥Kx ♦Axx ♣Kxx . Declarer plays low , you have ♠AKJ9 ♥xx ♦Kxxxxx ♣x so what is going on ? Partner has 4♥ for his penalty conversion so declarer only has a 5 card suit ( 5-4-2-2) . If partner has a stiff jack of diamonds declarer would not have ducked the diamond at trick one, as she would have held Q10x of diamonds 6-3-3-1 . Therefore declarer has 5 hearts & 2 diamonds. Partner should not convert this double for penalty with 3 spades & it is obvious from the bidding that your HCP’s are in spades. Therefore , declarer has 2♠-5♥-2♦-4♣ so you switch to your singleton club . Partner puts in a club spot and the king wins in dummy. Declarer returns to her hand with a diamond , plays A & K of hearts everybody follow. She leads the diamond Ace , pitches a spade as partner ruffs in. Partner returns the spade 8 and you win the spade jack. Since declarer discarded a spade , the original spade pattern was 5-4-2-2. You return your good diamond so declarer discards a club. You continue a diamond so partner must get a heart trick promoted. As you have retained his spade exit card , he will not get end played in clubs . So you get 1♦ , 1♦ ruff , 1♥ uppercut , 1♠ and 3 natural club tricks for +500.

Translating bidding into patterns , leads into patterns , declarer play into patterns & showing out of suits into patterns is how you defend in Bridge. Otherwise , you are just guessing. If you are just guessing , advantage declarer. When partner doubles for penalty or converts for penalty, she avoids leading singletons if at all possible. Leading a singleton when you have 4 or more of their trump is usually beneficial to declarer. In this case , declarer would not have ducked knowing that a diamond ruff is imminent so there is your first clue that partners ♦ lead was not a singleton. The rest of the defense , as is usually the case , is just applying patterns.

In this hand you applied patterns deduced from the bidding ( trump length & spade length) , partners lead & declarers play in diamonds at trick one. Defending & thinking in patterns are one & the same thing. Defense becomes far more fun when you have patterns mastered & not so fun for your opponents who were trying to go for -500.