Walking the dog

Playing bridge with Kate last night on BBO, on board No. 5, the opponents were vulnerable and we weren't. I picked up this mitt:

♠A ♥--- ♦A 7 4 3 2 ♣A K 10 8 6 4 2

Visions of sugar plums danced in my head until my right-hand opponent opened a strong 1NT. Now what? We have a bid for this: 2♣ shows the minors. Of course, I can always bid clubs at some level, if partner bids diamonds, to show that that suit is longer. My LHO bid 2♦, a Jacoby transfer to hearts. I was shocked to then hear Kate bid 3♦! LHO bid 3♥. What would you do?

The auction had worked out very well. I know partner has a decent diamond suit because she can't have much else (most of the time) and the opponents are bidding my void. So, it looks like we are cold for 6♦ or maybe even seven.

I casually bid only 4♦, knowing the auction wouldn't end there. LHO bid 4♥. Kate bid 5♦ and LHO bid 5♥.

Now I was pretty sure we had a shot at 7♦, but I only bid six. It went pass pass double and I redoubled. The purple card in the bid box is nice and shiny -- people don't use it much.

Here are all four hands (deal rotated):

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

   West   North   East   South
   1NT    2♣(1)   2♦(2) 3♦
   3♥     4♦     4♥     5♦
   5♥     6♦     Pass   Pass
   Dbl    Redbl   All Pass

(1) Minors.
(2) Transfer to hearts.

West lead a heart and there wasn't much to the play. Declarer ruffed, ruffed a club to her hand and advanced the ♦Q. She led diamonds twice more, then ruffed another club and the board was good.

Kate told me later she almost threw up when I redoubled -- she had freely bid twice, don't forget.

Bridge has a lot of colorful expressions and one of them is "walking the dog." The idea is to bid timidly in the hopes of later getting doubled to earn a better score. Marilyn Hemenway discusses it here and Greg Earnest on his blog masthead here.

Our score was 98.66%. There was another that duplicated our score and one pair bid and made 7D redoubled! You can see all the results here.