Breaking Up a Double Squeeze for 6NT

Last night was the annual Christmas party at the local club. I must say, my partner and I had copious amounts of alcohol - he finished a bottle of wine by himself, and I had several glasses of pepsi and malibu, not to mention all the food from the potluck. Clubs really should do this more often - have potluck dinners. As usual, my dish was one of the few empty ones at the end of the night, and it's not because I didn't make enough; it's just that good.

Anyway, on to the bridge... I had another issue with people now knowing what a responsive double is. My LHO, one of the better players at the club who has 2000ish masterpoints, held xx, AKxx, AJxxx, xx, and the auction went 1C-1S-3C to her. This is a clear responsive double situation but she chose 3D instead, which was passed out (ugh. surely 3D should be forcing here) and they couldn't help but make 3. Fortunately 3NT and 3M were just about as cold so I couldn't really complain about the result. It was just another instance of my being frustrated by the fact that people just don't know about responsive doubles.

More interesting was this hand where we bid to 6NT.

Dealer: E Vul: EW	North ♠ xxx ♥ J9xx ♦ xx ♣ AT9x
West ♠ AKQJT ♥ KTx ♦  xxx ♣ xx		East ♠ x ♥ Ax ♦  AKJ9x ♣ KQJxx
	South ♠ xxxx ♥ Qxxx ♦ QTx ♣ xx

6D in the 5-3 fit has a sure club and diamond loser, 6C in the 5-2 fit has 2 sure club losers, 6NT is makable on a double squeeze but I'm totally not convinced that's the right line, but 6S in the 5-1 fit makes pretty easily since spades split 4-3 by either ruffing a heart in dummy or ruffing out a club to set up a long club.

In 6NT, north led a diamond, which is probably best. If nothing else, it cuts down on entries for a later squeeze. I tanked for awhile, took the ace and continued with the CK and CQ, both holding. I tanked again. Now I could play for clubs to be 3-3 or play for something good to happen in diamonds. It turns out I should then lead a diamond and south won't be able to take a club now, but I decided it's not very likely north led from 2 small and ducked the club ace twice, and squeeze possibilities looked grim now. This was not against a good pair. So, I played for clubs to split and went down 1.

Let's see how the squeeze could materialize. If north takes one of the first 2 clubs and leads another diamond, I can cash the 3rd round of clubs, run the spades and reach a 3 card ending. On the last spade at trick 10, north, must unguard hearts to keep from making dummy's club good, therefore dummy can throw away the club. Now, south must also unguard hearts to keep from making dummy's diamond good, and the heart ten would take trick 13. Making 6. Simple.

Dealer: E Vul: EW	North ♠ ♥ J9x ♦ ♣ T
West ♠ T ♥ KTx ♦ ♣		East ♠ ♥ Ax ♦  J ♣ x
	South ♠ ♥ Qxx ♦ Q ♣

But, is the squeeze still there if north ducks clubs twice? You can't rectify the count now without risking losing both club tricks or a club and a diamond. So, on the run of the spades, you can reach this ending with one spade left to cash:

Dealer: E Vul: EW	North ♠ ♥ J9x ♦ x ♣ AT
West ♠ T ♥ KTx ♦ xx ♣		East ♠ ♥ Ax ♦ KJ ♣ Jx
	South ♠ ♥ Qxxx ♦ Qx ♣

North can safely pitch a diamond and south a heart. The best you can do now is play AK and a heart and hold south doesn't unblock the Q to get himself endplayed. I think I would have been able to execute the squeeze if north had cooperated, but she made what turned out to be an excellent duck of clubs twice.

More on Responsive Doubles

The weekend in Orlando didn't yield many things that I would want to blog about - I spent most of the time at the bridge table being frustrated. In the second round I made a claim - a totally legitimate and proper claim, stating that I was pitching 2 losers from my hand on good cards from dummy, and then showing my hand. LHO pitched a bit of a fit because I played before she did and then didn't understand that me stating a line of play and showing all my cards face up on the table was a claim because I didn't use the word claim.

On Sunday, I pitched a fit because we had an auction 1S-2H-2S-X-all pass. I was the 1S bidder and I checked their meticulously filled out convention cards to see if responsive doubles were marked. Both cards identically showed the only doubles they played are negative through 3S, so I felt no need to ask as this is more than enough information to indicate that RHO, the doubler, has the spade stack. I proceeded to misplay it, eventually letting rho trump something with her singleton trump and going down in what is a cold contract if I take a normal line of play or if the doubler actually has 4 or 5 trumps. I guess I could have asked but I hate asking if it's something that's clearly on the card. After the hand, I question them about the double and they say it was a negative double and that they do not play responsive doubles (and don't understand how that is relevant here), I tell them they are wrong and summon the director. He quickly agrees that my assumption about who had the long trumps is reasonable and says he'll look at it more closely. Eventually the director ruled that other people went down in 2S and that I, as the seeded pair playing against a pair that was clearly not very sophisticated at bridge, could/should have done more like ask a question, to protect myself from being misled, so the result stood. Grr. In a more serious game, I think that one I may have taken to a committee.

Responsive doubles are takeout doubles when the opponents have bid and raised a suit and partner has bid something or doubled in between. Why doesn't everyone know this?

Quick quiz to name what kind of double is applicable in various situations:
1S-X-2S-X     responsive
1S-2H-X         negative
1S-X-2H-X     penalty
1D-P-1S-2H-X  support (penalty if you don't play support doubles)
1D-1S-3D-X   responsive (penalty if you don't play responsive that high)
1D-X-1NT-X  penalty (many people wrongly believe this is negative as well)
1D-1S-2H-X   snapdragon would apply (but penalty is standard)
1H-1S-1NT-X penalty
1S-2H-2S-3H  maximal (the only way to invite to game as 3S is just competitive), but penalty if you don't play this

Responsive Doubles and Other Competitive Doubles

Online I ran across a few situations where there was some confusion as to what double means: when the opponents interfere after a 2/1, when the opponents preempt after 1X-P-1Y, and the misuse of responsive doubles after 1M-X-2M.

A responsive double is generally defined as a double when the opponents have bid and raised a suit and partner has either made a takeout double or overcalled. When partner has overcalled, for example 1D-1H-2D-X, the double is clearly takeout for spades and clubs, without heart support. When partner has doubled and the opponents bid and raised a minor, for example 1D-X-2D-X, the double is clearly asking partner to bid a major, presumably showing 4-4 in the majors and not suggesting clubs at all.

There apparently is some confusion, at least amongst some juniors that I was watching yesterday, about what a responsive double means when it goes 1S-X-2S-X. This responsive double is not takeout for 3 suits. That would be a bit too vague as the chances that responder is 1-4-4-4 is minimal and with any other takeout shape, you're really not any more likely to find the best fit by passing the decision of which suit back to partner. A responsive double in this situation (1M-X-2M-X) should be takeout for the minors, i.e. "I don't have support for the other major and want to compete to 3 of a minor but I want you to pick which minor." This is based on the idea that if the responsive doubler has 4 of the other major, he would just bid that suit because the original takeout doubler is extremely likely to have 4 as well.

A second double that I have come across lately is 1H-P-2C-2S; X. We are in a game force and this guy comes in a bids. This is a penalty double, probably something like KJx, AKxxx, Axx, xx. It may make sense for this to just show extra values or show some club support or something else that probably is only useful for marginal slam hands, but being able to punish the opponent for sticking his neck in our auction.

The third double is in an auction like 1D-P-1H-2S; X. This time we are not in a game force and this is too high to be a support double (committing to 3H with a minimum could be dangerous). Penalty doesn't make as much sense here because we don't have as good an idea of where we are headed with this auction when we do have a good hand. This double should be just general extra values, probably a hand that would have rebid 2NT if RHO had passed, maybe a hand like Qx, Axx, KQJx, AQxx.