Monday, January 30, 2006 8:45 AM

Penalty Doubles vrs Slam Bidding

PITBULLS:

Penalty Doubles in IMPS & Rubber Bridge are easier decisions then in the matchpoint game. In IMPS & rubber Bridge , you take your huge set and if they bid a slam at the other table and make it so what ? The difference will be minimal so you only lose a small number of IMPS. If the slam does not make , you have won a ton of IMPS. Matchpoints is a lot tougher though. BJ Trelford held this hand playing matchpoints QJxx xxx AQxx Kx and he was vul vrs non vul opponents. He heard his partner open 2♣ and his RHO overcalled 2♠ ! Some people play a double here has a 2^ND negative and partner with a NT hand is required to re-open with a double if responder passes initially. BJ prefers the old fashioned penalty double as an initial action.

With this hand you may have too much to make a penalty double on this one vulnerability combination. What ! Is that a contradiction or what ? Partner will leave your penalty doubles in with all the NT range hands 22-24 HCP . This puts your partner ship in the 35 HCP range . This hand is a matter of doing arithmetic during the auction. You will beat 2♠X doubled 5 or 6 tricks which is 1100 or 1400 . In IMPS , who cares as you should not have a grand slam with these combined HCP’s so why not take out insurance against a small slam not making ? The spade King looks off side for 7NT but we can not be off the AK of spades as we have 34 HCP minimum. In matchpoints , I would not double 2♠ and simply pass ( in IMPS I would also pass but not rubber Bridge) . I do not want partner leaving it in with the NT range as we would have 35 HCP and 6NT is on for +1440. This pass allows partner a chance to describe her 2♣ opener. If she doubles showing a NT hand , you bid 3♠ as a western Q to find out the spade situation and leap to 6NT for your +1440. There are grand slam possibilities which also make the initial penalty double anti-percentage.

My actual hand was Ax AK10 K AQJ109xx so I would re-open with 3♣ and we may get to our grand slam in clubs or 7NT. At the table BJ did double and I jumped to 3NT. BJ knows that I do not have the NT hand or else I would have passed 2♠X. BJ leapt to 6NT which makes 7 and we got a good match point result as most pairs were in 6♣. Maurice and Susan got to 7NT via a marginal opening bid with BJ’s hand. 2 quick tricks and a flat 12 HCP vul vrs not ( not for the faint of heart ) .

Can we recover and make a grand slam try on our auction ? Very tough to do quantitatively . A jump to 5NT would say bid 6 with a minimum and 7NT with a maximum. However , partner has more of a distributional hand on this auction and we may get to 7NT off an Ace. . What is a 4♠ bid ? It may be natural and exposing a psyche so that bid is out. I think a leap to 6NT is all we can do at this point.