Better Bridge in Barry County
By
Gerald Stein
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North
♠ K J 10 9 7
♥ 8 6 5
♦ 9 8
♣ 9 5 2
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West
♠ Q 6 3
♥ Q 9
♦ K Q 7 3
♣ K 10 7 4
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East
♠ A 8 4
♥ 10
♦ A J 10 6 4
♣ J 8 6 3
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South
♠ 5 2
♥ A K J 7 4 3 2
♦ 5 2
♣ A Q
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Dealer:
Vulnerable:
Lead:
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West
Both
5♥
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North
Pass
Pass
Pass
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East
2♦
5♦
Pass
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South
4♥
Dbl
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West
1♦
Pass
Pass
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“Double, double, toil and trouble,” chant the three
witches in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth.
Their incantations spell gloom and doom for Macbeth and those around him.
While bridge players do not rely on chants or incantations against their
opponents, still they have a useful device at their disposal when they feel
that their opponents have bid too high. The use of the penalty double can bring
rewards to discerning bridge players.
In today’s hand, West opened the bidding with twelve
high card points and bid the four-card diamond suit first. North with nothing
passed. East with five good diamonds used the 2♦
bid as a forcing bid, promising five diamonds and ten-twelve total points.
South with a long and strong heart suit pushed the bidding up quickly by
bidding 4♥. East pushed back to 5♦. Here is where South heeded the witches’ advice as
East had just put their partnership in hot water. South was wise to double 5♦, especially when he knew that East/West were
vulnerable.
When North led the 5♥
as the opening lead, West as declarer knew, once she saw the dummy hand that
East placed on the table, that she had a number of losers. While there would be
no diamond losers, there looked to be one heart loser, one club loser, and two
spade losers. That would be costly as down two doubled and vulnerable would
yield a minus 500 points and a huge loss. Minus 500 points is never a winning
score unless North/South as vulnerable can make a 4♥
contract. The question then becomes this: can North/South make 4♥ on this hand?
On this hand, if South steals the contract at 4♥, he will be unable to make the contract. He will
lose one spade, two diamonds, and one club for down one. If East had been
sharp, she would have doubled the contract of 4♥,
and collected 200 points since North/South were also vulnerable. It would have
been East/West who would have been doing the smiling with a nice 200 point gain
since they cannot make 5♦ on this hand.
Bidding up to the four and five level in a
competitive auction is dangerous stuff. While game is a worthy goal whenever
possible, there has to be some caution at times; the bidder must not get
carried away with the prospects of making a game. Remember to make a game in a
minor suit, East/West would have needed 29 points together. While we can see by
counting the points ourselves, East/West have 22 high card points between them
while North/South have 18. Those are pretty telling numbers. Someone is going
down on this hand.
South was lucky he was not doubled for a loss on
this hand. East pushed too hard and should have put on the brakes. East should
have doubled South for trying to interfere. Instead East was caught up in the
auction and forgot to use two of her basic tools of bridge. She forgot to count
the points, and she forgot to double.
The witches had it right even though each time they
gave equivocal messages to Macbeth. He always misinterpreted the words that the
witches were sending his way. The message here is clear. East had the count of
the points. She knew that when West opened, West promised at least 12 high card
points. East had 10 high card points. Combining the East and West hands, we see
that the East/West team had the preponderance of points with 22. North/South
can only have 18 of the total 40 points in a hand. East must make North/South
pay by doubling and giving them all kinds of “toil and trouble.”
Gerald Stein
November 16, 2014
Number of words: 722
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