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                              Dream-time?

A bridge dream can be very simplistic: bidding and making 7NT is a great place to start. (That was yesterday’s dream. Hope you did it legitimately at trick 12.) Today, we have a different joy, that of penalising the opponents in a bad contract. Collecting 1100, 1400, well maybe only 200..they are all nice feelings, well worth the risk of the occasional -590 or a total miscue – 890. Well, they did miss the grand but it’s a bit embarrassing conceding 3 overtricks in 4!

Yet, catching the opponents in a bad contract does not always mean that the contract is or should be doubled. We saw a prime example in one of our “Yes It Happened” stories last Sunday where a player passed his partner in a cue-bid of an opponent’s suit. The contract was 8 down vulnerable but a greedy double would have seen +800 become -1460 or -2210. Accept the undoubled under-tricks.

That was one issue at stake in today’s problem:

 

After South calls 1, you were about to call 1. You do have a reasonable hand, after all. However, you suddenly have a dream, a dream where South ended up in 3NT. How good would that be?

So, you decided to wait a round…. and when the next round came, the bidding had got rather high…and look, a dream has become reality!  So, maybe not 4 now…but do you bid or remain silent?

Generally, when you double an opponent in 4 of a major, they do not run to a different suit. A minor suit might be better for them but it is now a level higher, so less attractive. You should be fairly sure that you can handle a run to 4NT if you do double but generally they do not. I “did” recently run from a making 4 doubled to a making 4NT…and the opponents did not double! At least it was making!

Yet, the double of 3NT has an added factor, the fact that they could run to 4 of a minor. So, you need to wonder whether doubling may be the right action.

Of course, with the hand above, you could handle a move to 4, or 4 rather comfortably…but what about the black suits, especially clubs? Partner has 13, mainly lowly cards, and mainly black ones, but can you be sure that they are sufficient to beat both contracts at the 4 level? At the table, it would have been a rather unwise move to double 3NT, unless the opponents decided to play there:

 

A double of 3NT by the player on lead is not the same as one by their partner. The partner may be doubling for the lead of dummy’s first bid suit, maybe speculatively, but the double by the player on lead is a more certain double. They should know what they were doing. Perhaps they held 4 aces and a king though from North’s point of view, there would be only one king they could have.

It is quite brave to pull a penalty double of a freely bid 3NT by your partner. You are kind of saying that your partner is wrong. Yet, the diamond void will not be an asset for South in 3NT and having no aces and a weak hand suggests that 4 would be a good bid: indeed, a very good bid. It would be an even better bid if South raised to the club game.

Then, it would be a case of West’s pride. After doubling a contract that if left in was a certain three down, could they bring themselves not to double a contract two levels higher? If they did double, the salt would be well rubbed into the wound if North finished up with an overtrick!

So, the winning action here for West was to pass 3NT, lead 4 rounds of diamonds, soon win back the lead with A and enjoy themselves with three more diamonds. East would be very impressed, South less so.

Although South did nothing wrong in the bidding, I would have thought a direct 3NT after 1 would be a better approach. Who cares about a 5-card diamond suit headed by the jack? Since such a 3NT bid usually signals some club support, I would expect North may well bid a natural 4 with or without a double, thus getting the partnership to a making game. (Congratulations to Judy Russell who did just that.)

After that auction, there is less cause for West to double, more chance of a club fit which West cannot or should not double even at the 5 level.

What happened?

 

5 Wests had a dream really come true with their double of 3NT being passed out. In three of the cases, East had bid spades!    I do not suppose East enjoyed the double or the defence, initially at least!

6 Wests passed out 3NT after varying auctions, though in all cases East had not spoken.

4 Wests who doubled 3NT all came to grief after the opponents ran to clubs.

The rest of the West players fell in love too much with their hand and fell on their sword in diamonds at the 4 or 5 levels. As good as their hand could be, South’s diamond call and the large number of potential heart losers should have been warnings…or, perhaps, more simply, they did not have a dream.

Back to reality...

and for tomorrow another decent hand.

 

3 is a weak jump overcall. Where to from here?

Richard Solomon

 

 

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