Monday, July 19, 2010

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.

4 comments:

  1. You done good, right?

    Re Sam's Club...I like the place, but when we go (which isn't often) we end up buying way too much stuff and it costs a fortune.

    I think we've got enough toilet paper, though, to last through the century!

    ReplyDelete
  2. G'morning! Re red hot convertible and "handicapped" tags...do you ever notice how these tags are abused, often by kids or grandkids of the handicapped person...they pull up in a parking lot and go skipping into a store?

    Well, maybe not all that often.

    It's like all the obese people riding around the grocery store in an electric scooter. Some I think would be better off if they got a little exercise...

    Have a great day! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey David. Want to go on a field trip. There is a group of us Clevelanders heading to Indiana on Aug 19, 20 21 to play in the 300$ +40$ 20k deepstack that starts at noon on the 20th. Why not come play? We can root each other on.

    ReplyDelete
  4. dear Mojo, I am always of the view that if you and your opponents have a big double fit, then doubles rarely prove profitable. Best to bid on and steal the auction. Your opponents should have respected your redouble and gone onto 6H and taken their own dog for a walk. Yours HBJ.

    ReplyDelete