Ludington Daily News – 12 Jul 1989
Although the widespread use of point count has made bidding more exact, players weaned on this evaluation method sometimes err in their competitive judgment.
In today’s deal an unnamed expert sitting North looked at his hand and saw 15 high-card points. He could not resist coming in with a takeout double after West had responded with one spade. East now made an ‘action” bid — he redoubled. He knew he had a fine hand for defense, and he wanted to encourage his partner to double the opponents for penalties. Sure enough, although South tried to bluster a confident two diamonds, West was happy to double. North had no place to run.
West got off to the best lead. Declarer won the spade king and led a heart to dummy’s queen and East’s king. East cashed the heart ace and K-A of clubs, and led a third club. South discarded a spade as West ruffed. The spade return was ruffed by East, and West still had two more diamond tricks coming.
The contract was down three for 800 points — a nice result in view of the fact that East-West could not make more than a part-score. What’s the moral?
[box]If you’re going to get into the bidding vulnerable against non-vulnerable opponents, have taking tricks and a decent suit, not points that may be wasted in the play. [/box]