From the desk of Bob Jones:

DOUBLING WITH GUSTO

October 31, 2011

Hi All,

In competitive auctions, strange things often happen. You may find yourself in a position where doubling the opponents has some appeal. This can be a good thing when they are vulnerable and you are not. Down 2 (+500) will beat any game you might bid and make. At other vulnerabilities you should usually just pursue your own offensive chances.

Both Jourdan’s and Beth Ami, which started today, play the same hands. Consider board #28 from today:

As the cards lie
bridge hand

I played a few boards at Beth Ami with Nancy Benamati, who opened 1H in third position with the East hand. South overcalled 2D, certainly not everyone’s choice. Many would start with double. Both East and South caught a fit, though values were scarce. I raised Nancy to 2H and North raised to 3D. Nancy, with exciting distribution and a raising partner, correctly continued with 3H, and South had a dilemma. What the hell was going on here? He had 23 points, almost all Aces and Kings, and every one else was bidding their backside off.

South doubled with gusto. He was going to teach us a lesson we would never forget! Nancy made 5 on the AD lead. Ace of spade and a spade would have held her to 4. Doubled!

It takes a club lead from West to beat 6D and it takes a spade lead to beat 6NT. South should have just followed his offensive chances and ignored us. The vulnerability wasn’t right to defend.

Bob