Better Bridge in Barry County February 6 2014

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  2  ♥  J 3  ♦  J 5 4 2   ♣  A J 8 6 4 2
West ♠  10 ♥  A Q 10 8 2 ♦  A K Q 6    ♣  10 7 5		East ♠  Q 6 3 ♥  K 5 4 ♦  10 9 8 7 3 ♣  9 3
	South ♠  A K J 9 8 7 5 4 ♥  9 7 6 ♦  --- ♣  K Q

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

North East/West 8♥

 

North Pass Pass Pass	East Pass Pass Pass	South 4♠! Rdbl!	West Dbl Pass

A redouble bid is a bid that is not used very often in a bridge game. Can you remember the last time you redoubled an opponent who had dared to double your first bid? It does not happen often, but it happened in today’s hand. Let’s see how things worked out.

After North and East had both passed, South with seven strong spades, a void in diamonds, three weak hearts and a doubleton king-queen club combination, and sitting in third seat knew just the bid to shut out the opponents. South bid 4♠ as recommended by one of the top bridge players on the Bridge Base Online website. Leo LaSota has accumulated over 10,000 master points by playing bridge online in bridge tournaments. His recommendation when sitting in third seat, a long major suit, and two passes before your bid? Bid four of the major and see what happens. That is what South did today.

Not content to sit back silently, West, with a strong hand, elected to double, probably for penalty but possibly for a takeout double with the strong hearts. Why West with the heart suit and knowing that South had at least seven or eight spades did not bid the heart suit herself is a mystery. Bidding 5♥ would have definitely been a sacrifice, and even doubled down a trick would have been only a minus 200. At any rate, North and East passed with East probably thinking that East/West were playing the double as a penalty. They need to talk about the double at the four level: is it takeout or is it penalty?

South must have eaten his Wheaties for breakfast that morning, as he sat up straight in his chair and promptly redoubled the bid. West had time to bail out of the bid, but she passed and so did the rest of the table. The contract was 4♠ in the South, doubled and redoubled.

West led the 8♥, a questionable lead for any good bridge defender. Underleading an ace when in a trump contract defies logic. While this is perfectly legitimate when in a no trump contract, there are two opponents who might have the missing king, and only one partner. If you need to lead your suit, do not underlead the ace. Lead the ace and expect to see low cards drop all around. Aces and kings were meant to take high cards, not low spots.

This time it worked for the East/West pair when East provided the K♥ for their first trick. A heart return would surely win after that lead, but East elected to lead a small spade to remove the opportunity for South to trump a heart with the lowly 2♠. South won the trick with the A♠ with all following. South played the K♠ next and was not surprised to see that West was out and that the Q♠ would be a winner for the East/West team.

Knowing that giving up the lead would result in two more heart losers and one spade loser for down one doubled and redoubled, South had to find a way to make one heart loser go away. Here is how South continued the play of the hand: South played the K♣ first and all followed. Then South played the Q♣ from his hand, and when he reached the dummy hand, he called for the A♣ to overtake the Q♣. East had to play her final club. South then played the J♣ from the dummy. East needed to do something and used the Q♠ to trump the good J♣. South smoothly pitched a losing heart on the losing trick achieving what is called in bridge parlance “a loser-on-a-loser” situation. Both of South’s losers, the Q♠ and the losing heart, disappeared on the same trick. East returned a heart to West winning their third and final trick.

With only trump left in his hand, South claimed the last six tricks. The score for making a game contract doubled and redoubled? How about a hefty 880 points to the North/South team?  In the replay with another team playing the exact same cards, West wisely passed, and North/South accomplished the same results as today’s South with this exception. The second pair received 420 points for making their major game in spades without any interruption from the opponents. West’s double of 4♠ and the subsequent redouble by South resulted in a 460 point gain with exactly the same cards. Could or should East/West have sacrificed at the five level when the redouble showed up? Let’s see what that would look like.

It appeared as if a spade were led by North, and won by South, a continuation of the spade would result in an overtrump by North. A diamond lead would result in a trump by South and two club tricks for down three, vulnerable. Down three vulnerable is still a minus 800 points for East/West, almost the same score as the redoubled contract of minus 880.What was the best solution for East/West? Pass smoothly and play the hand at 4♠ and hope that the next hand will be an East/West hand.

 

Gerald Stein

January 28, 2014

Number of words: 1000

 

Bridge notes: Interested in finding out about Leo LaSota’s great success on Bridge Base Online? Go to www.bridgebase.com for online bridge tournaments. Some games are free, so look around and see what you can discover.