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The price we may pay.

Penalty doubles and even bids by opponents issue warnings to a declarer that suits are breaking badly. We have to be pretty sure that when we do double for penalties that the warning given is not enough to put declarer on the right track to make their contract. Would you double the following auction with your rather tasty looking trump suit and more than a little on the side?

 

North had of course chimed in too although perhaps not much could be expected for their weak jump overcall. With the bidding as above, South decided they could afford to double. So, at one table in a recent Teams match, 4 was doubled while at the other table West declared in 4 without any interference.

Let’s look at all 4 hands:

 

Let’s look firstly where there was no interference, no double. There was, though, a slightly unusual lead, K. That posed a threat to West in that it could well be a singleton though was not too an unpleasant card to see led. There had to be two trump losers unless one defender held KQ doubleton and a spade had to be lost.

West was concerned at the danger of losing two spade tricks if North held A. So, after taking A, they played two rounds of diamonds and crossed to the West hand with a low trump. South played low and West played their ace to play a third round of diamonds. The break in both red suits was rather unkind. South ruffed with 10 and then cashed their two high trumps and A for one down.

One could argue that if North held A, there was no immediate way for South to gain the lead and that ducking a trump to North might be a better approach. Even if declarer did not start with J, they might start with 9 only playing their ace if South covered. However, the break in both red suits was not what West wanted to see and their slightly pushy game contract met a quick demise: not their lucky day.

Let’s return to where warnings had been issued by North-South in the form of the 3 bid and the penalty double.

 

 

Here, North made the more standard lead of J. West knew that three rounds of diamonds would not be successful. Indeed, they feared that even a second round might be ruffed by South. So, plans for discarding a spade had to be abandoned. There was another major problem in the form of the trump suit.

So, West won Q and played a low spade at trick 2, needing South to hold A. South took their ace and exited with their remaining diamond. West expected at least 2 trump losers and thus had to play clubs for no loser to have any chance of success.

They played a spade to the king and a low club to the king and ace. Forewarned of a bad trump break, they called for J and when South inserted Q, West ducked, being relieved that North did have one trump.

All South could do was exit Q ruffed in the East hand. Declarer followed with 6 from dummy. South covered with 10 to prevent a deep finesse and the A took the trick. With the defence having taken one trick in each major, West played a club to dummy with these cards remaining:

Declarer could play 9 conceding just K or indeed play a club to the Q and ruff K with 9. Either way, West had made 10 tricks. +590 at one table and + 50 at the other, a 12 imp gain.

The second West had played their cards very well and took advantage of the favourable lie of the K and the A. They deserved their reward. Would they have played the same way without the double? To play J on the first round of the suit gives up any chance of that KQ doubleton possibility. Maybe our other West could have taken a slightly different line but no warnings had been issued by the defence.

The well-worn saying that “if you have never doubled a making contract, then you are not doubling enough” maybe holds true here for South. They met an unfortunate lie of the cards for the defence and a declarer who took full advantage. The price of doubling this time was paid.

Richard Solomon

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