Monday, September 11, 2006 5:26 PM

Hand Evaluation - Doubles ( Western Q Bids)

PITBULLS:

One of the purposes of competitive nuisance bidding or pre-empting is to take their Q bid away from the opponents. This bidding disrupts their auction so they cannot get to their optimum contract. One of the purposes of D.S.I.P. competitive double theory is to counteract this strategy. A D.S.I.P. double replaces the Q bid when their bidding removes that particular option from the partnership. The D.S.I.P. double in effect becomes a maximal game try double , a western Q bid or even a slam try. In situations where a D.S.I.P. double must be interpreted as a Q bid , forcing passes are turned on at the 4 level. Q bids would have turned on forcing passes so a strength showing double is no different.

The Western Q bid is a handy bid to ask partner to bid 3NT with a stopper in their suit. This is the default understanding for a Q bid after a minor opening bid by partner so usually signals a fit in partners minor. What if the opponents have bid at the 3 level taking away your ability to make a Western Q bid ? A western Q bid is too valuable a bid , so we overcome this handicap by introducing a Thrump ( 3NT double ) . All negative doubles at the 3 level have “thrump” implications as getting to 3NT is a primary goal in Bridge.

Direct doubles of pre-empts at the 3 level are negative Thrump doubles. Doubles of the opponents bids at the 3 level in the sandwich position can also be interpreted as Thrump doubles. There are many other auctions where 3 level D.S.I.P. doubles can be interpreted as Thrump doubles. Here is a recent example.

Kiz Fung had a hand in competition in a recent Calcutta where this understanding would have worked like a charm. Ray Grace opened a weak 2♠, Kiz overcalled 3♦ ( some leapt to 3NT ) with ♠Ax ♥x ♦AKQJxx ♣J109x . Bertrand bid 3♥ which is forcing one round so Ray Grace retreats to 3♠. Now here is where the stupidity of a penalty double rears its ugly head. Why make a single handed penalty double of 3♠ which may be still in a live auction ? Why are you overcalling with such a stack in spades where you can single handedly beat 3♠ two tricks or more ? Nonsense ! The trump stack penalty double is a wasted bid in a competitive potentially still live auction or any competitive auction for that matter.

Enter the D.S.I.P. double at the 3 level. With a minor implied , the goal is to get to 3NT after a competitive double. The opponents interference has taken away your ability to make a Western Q bid. The double as a Western Q bid stands out as Kiz has a source of tricks for NT with the unbid suit clubs in case I have extreme length in that suit. It turns out I have ♠K108 ♥K1098x ♦x ♣xxxx so I bid 3NT. This probably gets doubled for +550 which happened at more than one table. Optionally , if I convert the double , we get +300 instead of the 100 we did get when 3♠ was passed out.

The department of Bridge Homeland Security approves the above message for the counteracting of Bridge terrorism. As this is Sept 11^th , we would like to acknowledge all the Bridge terrorists who were the incentive for inventing D.S.I.P. competitive double theory.