West’s double might be more forgivable if North’s 1N was 6-9 and non-forcing but today North might have been tempted to redouble with those extras. South was perhaps fortunate that the cards lay well enough for him, as West could have had only 2 diamonds but he played it well; conversely, what if South had bid 3S with SAK9xxxx and/or a singleton heart and found dummy with SJx. Even the best players (especially at pairs) could be tempted to bash down the SA which only fails 10% of the time but not after that double.
On BWTA, if the CA were moved to hearts, how much more would you want before bashing 4S? Holding AKJ9xx AJx QJx x for example, I’m just going to bid 4S first and worry when dummy hits the deck, and I might not wait for the HJ although I probably should. I definitely take the point on the stiff CA though – unwieldy at best although at least it is in the closed hand.
Regards,
Iain
bobbywolffMarch 10th, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Hi Iain,
Today’s hand is contrived and only a teaching (warning) tool, to not giving the show away, since big brother’s out there who is often capable of pulling rabbits out of hats and thus use the unnecessary information which West, the doubler provided, to cause a huge swing to the other side (NS).
Likewise, with the BWTA, a mere suggested slow down in making aggressive decisions without consulting partner. I, too, would jump to game, but you and I can use our hundreds of years of experience to whistle off sincere doubts (when and if, we go set).
And if someone would get nasty, I’d invite them to go outside to settle that issue, but then, of course, change my mind, if he accepted (sadly even if my partner was female, which, after all, was my preference to start with).
Finally my (and I suspect, even your) motive for bidding ’em up is that sometimes our OXes (partners) have the right hand (but they do not think so) for 10 tricks, but even when not, the opponents, ever so often, can act like two amateur magicians and take only three defensive tricks out of a likely four (or on bad days for them), even five.
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Hi Bobby,
West’s double might be more forgivable if North’s 1N was 6-9 and non-forcing but today North might have been tempted to redouble with those extras. South was perhaps fortunate that the cards lay well enough for him, as West could have had only 2 diamonds but he played it well; conversely, what if South had bid 3S with SAK9xxxx and/or a singleton heart and found dummy with SJx. Even the best players (especially at pairs) could be tempted to bash down the SA which only fails 10% of the time but not after that double.
On BWTA, if the CA were moved to hearts, how much more would you want before bashing 4S? Holding AKJ9xx AJx QJx x for example, I’m just going to bid 4S first and worry when dummy hits the deck, and I might not wait for the HJ although I probably should. I definitely take the point on the stiff CA though – unwieldy at best although at least it is in the closed hand.
Regards,
Iain
Hi Iain,
Today’s hand is contrived and only a teaching (warning) tool, to not giving the show away, since big brother’s out there who is often capable of pulling rabbits out of hats and thus use the unnecessary information which West, the doubler provided, to cause a huge swing to the other side (NS).
Likewise, with the BWTA, a mere suggested slow down in making aggressive decisions without consulting partner. I, too, would jump to game, but you and I can use our hundreds of years of experience to whistle off sincere doubts (when and if, we go set).
And if someone would get nasty, I’d invite them to go outside to settle that issue, but then, of course, change my mind, if he accepted (sadly even if my partner was female, which, after all, was my preference to start with).
Finally my (and I suspect, even your) motive for bidding ’em up is that sometimes our OXes (partners) have the right hand (but they do not think so) for 10 tricks, but even when not, the opponents, ever so often, can act like two amateur magicians and take only three defensive tricks out of a likely four (or on bad days for them), even five.