December 2023 - 58

Advanced Players
Bidding Matters
Relearning bridge - part 45
I
n a new partnership with an
experienced player, how would
you interpret his double in this
auction?
LHO Partner RHO You
1d
2d
1h
Dbl
Pass
Pass
1s
?
This situation is rare enough that
even longtime partnerships probably
haven't discussed it. Like them, you
have to rely on bridge logic to figure
out what type of hand partner has.
Which of these hands do you think
he's most likely to hold?
A sJ hA K 9 6 3 dK J 9 4 cK 10 4
B sQ 5 hA K Q 10 9 d9 7 3 cA J 6
It's clear that partner has some
extra strength. Your free bid of 1s is
widely played as constructive but not
forcing, so partner knows you have
some values, too. If he holds hand A,
he's telling you that your combined
assets and his diamond holding are
right for defending 2d doubled.
The other possibility - hand B - is
that he has shorter or weaker diamonds,
but enough strength that he
doesn't want to sell out to 2d. There's
only one unbid suit, so his double isn't
purely for takeout. It's more of a " Do
Something Intelligent " (DSI) type
of double - a hand that has offensive
and defensive values, but no clear way
to describe its distribution. In this
auction, it would be a good hand that
lacks a sixth heart and three-card
support for your spades.
Hand B was posed as Problem 4 in
the " It's Your Call " feature in the September
2023 Bridge Bulletin. The DSI
double was the choice of almost twothirds
of the expert panel, although
58 | Bridge Bulletin | December 2023
not all were certain that this meaning
would be obvious to partner. Other
panelists also expressed doubt about
how partner would interpret a double
and chose rebids of 2h, 2s and 3d.
From a purely logical standpoint,
I think the penalty meaning is more
practical, especially because partner
is sitting over the diamond bidder. If
he can't make a penalty double in this
auction, then what are his alternatives
with hand A? Your 1s bid didn't
promise more than around 8 HCP, so
this isn't the type of auction where
partner can pass and expect you to
reopen with a double.
There's enough ambiguity here
that partner probably shouldn't have
tested you with an undiscussed
double. If you have to field it at the
table, though, there's more to think
about than just what seems logical or
practical. You also need to consider
your partner's bidding style and what
you believe would be the most widely
accepted meaning among players of
his skill level.
Playing with a beginner or an
" old-school " expert, I'd assume his
double in the above auction was
penalty. With most other partners,
I'd expect hand B, mainly because
modern bidding trends define similar
low-level doubles as something other
than penalty. DSI-style takeouts have
become so popular that many players
consider them " expert standard " - a
term that refers to the " everybody
plays it this way " treatments used by
experienced players.
Even if you prefer a fairly basic
system, it's helpful to become familiar
with how experts solve bidding
problems. Many of their agreements
are simple improvements to standard
BY KAREN WALKER
kwbridge.com
methods. This knowledge can also
help you better understand your opponents'
bidding styles - and maybe
your partner's.
Keeping up with modern bidding
methods doesn't require intense
study. You can pick up valuable ideas
just by talking to experienced players,
kibitzing them in online tournaments
and reading their comments
on online discussion sites (Bridge
Winner, BBO Forum and group pages
on Facebook).
Bidding forums are also good
sources of information about " expert
standard " styles. This quiz format
is featured in " It's Your Call " in this
magazine, The Bridge World's Master
Solvers Club and many unit and
district newsletters. You can learn a
lot about how experts think from the
panelists' comments about why they
chose their bids and how they evaluated
alternatives. 2
Teacher Courses
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Workshop
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Houston TX
Jan. 20-21
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March 15-17
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December 2023

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