The perfect doubling hand?

You’re sitting West with North the dealer both vulnerable playing teams when you pick up the following hand:

S.   K

H.   AKQJ10

D.   AKQ

C.   AKQJ

A pretty nice looking 32 HCP 1 loser hand you think! 

Then surprisingly you find that you’re not opening the bidding.

The bidding goes:

N.      E.       S.        W

1C.    -        1S.       6H

7S.    -          -           ?

You’ve got the perfect hand and opportunity to double for maximum benefit right?.........

Hmmm perhaps not so fast!  Before we count our victory points and rush to do so perhaps we should take a breath first and enquire about the bidding? Unless we believe North to be crazy they must have a very distributional hand and clearly believe they have hit the jackpot with their partner’s response and either believe they have a good sacrifice against 6H or a belief they can possibly make 7S.

So after asking about the bidding we are told the 1C showed a 6 or less loser hand any shape and the 1S showed 8 or less losers 5+S. The biddings a bit unusual but not illegal. Clearly then there is a small chance NS can make 7S with very few HCP if north has a 67 or similar two suited hand with south a 3 suited hand with void in partners side suit. Still what are the chances of that right? And if it makes what would be the chances our partner’s would also bid it anyway?

The possible hands:

                                          S    AQxxxx

                                          H    -

                                          D    xxxxxxx

                                          C    -

S.   K                                                                                  S  J

H.   AKQJ10                                                                       H xxxxxx

D    AKQ                                                                             D J109

C    AKQJ                                                                           C xxx

                                         S  xxxxx

                                         H  xx

                                         D  -

                                         C xxxxxx

Well if on this inauspicious day you chose to double at least you weren’t redoubled?! ....... Or were you?

North has a 4 loser hand that they can upgrade to a 3 loser hand after south shows 8 or less losers and 5+ S. The rule of 18 indicates a grand slam may be possible. So after the 6H bid has removed bidding space to check key cards bid there is justification for the 7S bid. And perhaps for a redouble after the double of 7S? Hmmmmmm. Perhaps only in imaginary world but it would be a great bridge yarn if it ever came to pass in reality! .........Except perhaps when explaining the result to our partners when we returned to our table.

Started by SEAN LYNCH on 25 Sep 2018 at 11:11AM