Back to reality

The return trip from a long bridge tournament is always sad. At NABCs (and most mid-Atlantic regionals) I can't keep still and rest. It's ten days of non-stop social activity and mental stimulation. Tomorrow resumes a much more mundane life but I still have a lot going on in August including 2 bridge tournaments and a tennis tournament.

Personal totals for the tournament:
26 sessions of bridge, including 8 midnight games
208 deals in matchpoint games
336 deals in imp scoring
32 masterpoints won (3 platinum, 22 gold, 7 red)
3 different partners (6 deals each with Josh and Shaz, the rest with Sean)
34 alcoholic drinks
5 visits to Chipotle
4 meals of Indian food

We managed 2nd place four times (in a bracketed KO and 3 midnight games) but did not win anything so did not come back with any of the maple syrup section top prizes.

A wise top-notch bridge player (jlall) has said that in matchpoints when the auction goes 2NT-P-P, you should double. When the opponents have 20hcp opposite a near yarborough, they go down much more often then they make because of having to lead from hand so often. In side games on the last day, I got a chance to try this theory out twice. Both times dummy hit with a nice 4-count and we wound up giving up an extra overtrick in desperation, scoring -1090 and -690. Maybe next time we'll get +800.

We now have at least one more person on board the Swedish Canape train. Yay.

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Penalty double with 4 points

Since I have some extra time tonight (because I'm directing the Wednesday night game in Macon), I'll post another interesting hand from yesterday.

Joel got to do something you don't see much - make a penalty double at the 2 level with 4 high card points. He held: Jxx, Jx, xxx, QTxxx. With both sides vulnerable in 3rd seat, the auction was: 1H-P-P-X; XX-2C-X-P; P-P. The double of 2C is unquestionably a penalty double. My XX announced a huge hand and what more could you want to double 2C. Granted, the opponents could have bid diamonds and perhaps escaped a double but I might have been able to double 2D. I'm not sure. I held AQxx, AKQxx, ATx, x.

Unusual Penalty Doubles

These deals from last weekend in Wilmington, all involving strange penalty doubles, were rather amusing and contributed a lot to our winning.

Sean and I play a Gambling-like 3NT opening. It always shows a solid 7 card minor but in first and second seat it could contain 2 outside controls and possibly even more in 3rd seat. Friday night Sean dealt and held: ♠JTx, ♥T9xxxx, ♦Txx, ♣x. The auction went: P-P-3NT-4♦; P-4♥-X-P; P-P. It's hard to imagine how I could have a double but even with this crappy hand, leaving the double in when they're bid his 6 card suit was no problem. I held 7 solid clubs, plus the ♠A and ♦KJ so I just wanted to let him know I do have some defense and he can do something smart. We only beat it 2 but it was good for almost all of the matchpoints.

Saturday afternoon, Sean held another beauty: ♠97, ♥T97, ♦7632, ♣Q765. The auction, with me as dealer: 1♣-P-1♦-P; 1♥-P-1♠-X; XX-P-P-P. Here's a quick lesson on part of our Swedish canapé system.

1♣ was either a weak NT or any 17+.

1♦ was any 0-7 or 12+ w/o a 4 card major.
1♥ was 18-20 bal or 23+ bal or 17+ 4+♥ unbalanced and possibly canapé.

1♠ was any 0-5. Redouble was undiscussed and I am glad we were both on the same page in thinking that it's a business redouble. I had a 24-count that's canapé with longer spades: ♠AKQ43, ♥AKQ4, ♦Q8, ♣A8. We were probably getting to 3NT or 4♠ going down. Good thing she made a lead-directing double on her T8652 suit with 2 jacks outside. In case you were wondering, 1♠ redoubled making 2 is 1120.

Saturday night, I made yet another penalty double and Sean had a crappy hand. This time my LHO dealt and Sean held ♠QJ4, ♥T5, ♦QT83, ♣AT53. Our auction: P-P-1♥-P; P-X-1♠-X; 2♥-P-P-X; P-P-P. Since we do not play strong NT overcalls (1NT would be takeout showing 4 spades and a 5 card minor), he is aware that I may well have a strong NT but just have no bid. Therefore, balancing on lighter values is probably a good idea, but in this case, he has a decent balancing double at the one level by a passed hand whatever your system. As it turns out, all I had was a 4-3-3-3 hand with A-AK-K and 3 small hearts and would have never doubled 2♥ if the opponents were not vulnerable in matchpoints. With trump leads at every opportunity, we prevented a diamond ruff in dummy and set it one for +200 and a top. The rest of the scores on that board were pretty evenly divided between +100 and +130.

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The Double of 1NT

Let's go over the double of 1NT. This is about as annoying, maybe more annoying, than people not knowing about responsive doubles. Most players, even inexperienced players have some sort of agreement about what they play over the opponents' NT openings - DONT and Cappelletti are two of the most common ones, and in those systems X is a one-suited hand (in DONT) or a penalty double (in Capp). But if you haven't talked about your defense to NT, it shall be assumed you're playing natural suit overcalls, but what does that mean for double? A "natural" double of 1NT is a penalty double. Unquestionably. And responder is supposed to pull only if very weak and with a long suit.

Lately, I have seen a lot of people play something like a takeout double of 1NT, which is kind of silly. Twice in the last 3 days at the bridge club, my opponent made a "takeout" double of my partner's 1NT and when LHO bid a suit, RHO bid 2NT. Both times, I had enough points to know our side had over half the high cards so I doubled, later to find that the doubler has something more like a minimal takeout double of the suit her partner bid. Why don't people know that doubling 1NT is basically a penalty double and that doubling and then bidding 2NT, shows about 20 hcp?

Apparently beginning bridge teachers and books do a really crappy job of teaching the concepts behind doubling. It's pretty simple. If the opponents have bid one suit, double is takeout (or negative or responsive if your partner has opened or overcalled). If you double NT, it is penalty. Doubling and then bidding a new suit or NT shows a huge hand - too big to overcall. This is standard. Learn standard so that I don't keep getting irritated with such silly auctions, and pissed off when such an auctions gets me a zero.

On another note, Saturday afternoon, Sean and I got a near-top for going down 6 vulnerable in 5S. We may have run to our better fit (6C) if the lady with KT9xx of spades found a double, which I may have been able to hold to -2. But the field was in 4H or 5H making 5 the other way. It's not often you can go down 6 and get a good score.

Online last night, Sean and I had another score that you rarely see: +4000. 2NTXX -7. LHO decided to open 2NT with 8 solid clubs and not much else. Partner had AKQTxx of diamonds and dummy came down with Jxxx of diamonds, so after cashing a high diamond, he underled his honors and my 9 won trick 2 so we wound up taking 6 diamonds, then ran 5 hearts, and had the ace of spades. If declarer guessed correctly to play the jack at trick 2, it would have been -1280 for us, quite a large swing on that one play.