Tuesday, May 03, 2005 9:12 PM

Thinking in D.S.I.P.

PITBULLS:

D.S.I.P. doubles require an absolutely new approach to thinking in competitive situations. In actively competitive situations only two scenerios can be applicable . You own the auction or you do not. If it is self evident that you own the auction , standard forcing pass theory takes precedence. If you are actively competing and you do not own the auction or are not sure if you do , D.S.I.P. double theory takes over. The 3^rd case is when they own the auction or at the 5 level , old fashioned trump stack penalty doubles or action doubles can apply.

D.S.I.P. doubles are just the opposite of standard penalty double thinking. A standard double in a competitive auction says I have a trump stack so put on the breaks partner. In D.S.I.P. theory , the double is just the opposite . It says I have defense and want to take offensive action with no duplication of value in their suit. Why the switch from traditional thinking ?? This is due to the nature of the game of Bridge itself. Bridge by definition is played in a clockwise order. In many , many competitive auctions , partner with no duplication of value & defense “likes his hand” and competes one more time in your suit. Much to your dismay this is the wrong action as you wanted to make a trump stack penalty double but did not get the chance. A single handed decision was made for the partnership rather than a joint one. Pseudo sacrifices at the game level and wrong partial swings at lower levels are very common. The culprit is duplication of value in their suit and standard penalty double theory. There are many bids in Bridge which ferret out duplication of value . Splinters are the most popular method. D.S.I.P. doubles are the tool of choice for finding duplication of value in competitive bidding.

♠ QJ109xx ♥ AKQxx ♦ Ax ♣ void

This is a real hand from a Thurs nite quoted by Tom Gandolfo . The opponents opened

1♣-P-3♣-4♣ P-P-4♠-5♣ ? The opponents are bidding your void at the 5 level . You need next to nothing from partner to make 5♠ , in fact 6♠ is a possibility. Every undisciplined Bridge player in the world would bid 5♠ . They all would be wrong because when forcing pass theory applies you can afford to pass the decision to partner. The 5♣ bid does turn on forcing passes as they are obviously sacrificing. The opponents actions can switch on forcing pass theory. Partners hand is xxx xxx xx AQJ98 !! . In forcing pass theory when you have a huge hand with defense and want to bid 5♠ , you ask partners permission to bid 5♠ by passing. Forcing pass theory is beautiful partnership bidding .

Does this removal of trump stack doubles mean that opponents can get away with murder ? Of course not. Like negative doubles , penalty doubles are just done differently by converting partners D.S.I.P. double. What if you were too weak to re-open with a D.S.I.P. double ? This is actually a blessing and many times taking out insurance against penalty doubles making. Penalty doubles make when you announce to the declarer where the trump are and partner has very little defense to contribute. In D.S.I.P. theory this will never happen. Against very bad bidders who are have walked into a terrible trump stack are going to get away with it , if partner can not compete again with a double. However you can not make anything your way because of the duplication of value. The IMP scale robs these kind of results anyway. D.S.I.P. theory is not applicable for Match points or Rubber Bridge because the level of the opponents are a basic assumption. It is assumed that they are not suicidal. In other forms of Bridge , we not quite sure J