Daytona Beach Morning Journal – Dec 10, 1953
THE SIMPLE process of opening the bidding produces in many players a strange pride of possession.
The opener, it seems to them, has a priority of some kind and resents the intrusion of anyone on the defenders’ side.
Even when partner has faded to keep his opening bid alive, this type of player will show a stubborn streak by continuing to carry on the in today’s hand, despite the fact that North had failed to keep the bidding open.
South insisted on showing his other four card major. West did not fall into the common error of bidding two no trump. He considered it more prudent to put the opposition to work for him. This he accomplished by the double. The result was a three trick set for a net profit of 500 points.
NORTH ADDED fuel to the fire by inquiring. “Did my bidding deceive you partner?”
South attempted to justify his action on the basis of his 18 high card points: “Four and a half tricks we used to call it in the olden days.”
It is all very well to be guided by standard valuation methods when one contemplates the cooperation of a partner, but when partner has proven to be a wash-out, one should continue the fight only with cash register tricks.
There was no excuse for South’s second bid. North, by failing to keep the opening bid alive, had confessed that his hand was trickless. At such times opener must not rely on high card points or honor tricks. He will be fighting single handed and must depend only on sure tricks.
Not with any reasonable stretch of optimism could South count on winning more than five or six tricks himself. This amounts to signing up for at least a 500 point contribution if doubled, a contingency which should not have appeared at all remote.
To South it is recommended that in the future he be a little more circumspect than to take on two opponents single handed. The risk of being caught between two fairly strong hands should have been apparent. South was in effect attempting to fight tanks with a Peashooter.