Sin #1. Redoubling.

"I've got more redoubles than LeBron" - Ed Scanlon

It was a dreary, overcast day at the Bridge Boardroom... 

My partner and I are playing 2/1 but it hasn't come up at all. We've been having what feels like a good game. Nothing flashy, but some good cards and a little luck always helps.

Unbeknownst to me, we are in a tight race for 1st when in the last round I pick up my typical array of riches:

Dealer on my left passes, and partner opens 1 spade. Righty passes and I'm thrilled to embark on our first exciting two-over-one auction of the day. As much as I would love to bid 2 hearts, one of the golden rules is to always have five in this sequence, so I bid my junky four card diamond suit because it's right.

I zone out for a moment and realize the bidding has come back around to me.

What?

Lefty has slithered the red card onto the table, and partner has found the curious bid of pass. Righty has also passed but for some reason this doesn't register to me. 

As I sit there, wondering what pile of crap partner has opened that he won't indulge my desires for the most interesting bidding sequence of the day, I try to remember the scores for 2 diamonds doubled making overtricks. I can't remember in that moment, but decide that it can't be as much as the vulnerable game that we are supposed to have.

For whatever reason, I pull out the blue card, I guess assuming Lefty will now bid his pile of crap suit and we can either penalize or wiggle back to 4 spades. The only reason we're not in 4 spades right now is because I'm feeling frisky and determined to punish the ridiculous bidding on my left. I mean come on, we've shown 24+ HCP and you have the guts to make a takeout double after passing originally? How dare you!

Lefty pulls out another green card and it's now on partner to do something intelligent. "DSIP" bid.

I'm not sure how my partner was supposed to take the redouble. It seems like it should be SOS, but maybe it shows a desire to play diamonds. 

Partner passes and Righty now passes after some brief hesitation. 

Uh oh... I didn't really want to play 2D redoubled, did I? How stupid will I look when I go down 2 when 4 spades is colder than my evil, icy snowman heart?

The king of hearts flops onto the table as partner reveals his hand. My heart sinks, my lips quiver. 

                          

I expected a few more diamonds from partner, but he has the Ace and that turns out to be pretty huge.

I finally have a better idea of what I'm up against. It's a little late to think about taking a club hook in 4 spades, right now I need 8 tricks. 

I take my Ace of hearts. That's one. 

I cash two spades from my hand, everyone follows. That's three.

I cash my ace of clubs, and play a club to my king. No time to get greedy now. That's five. Three more..

I play the Ace of diamonds and get the good news that I'm not facing an 8-0 trump break. That's six.

I play the Queen of clubs, Righty ruffs with the 5, I over ruff. That's seven.

I play a low spade and pray... Lefty shows out, pitching a heart. (Wow, that 3-2 break in 4 spades would have been cool.)  8! Awesome!

I play the jack of spades and righty claims the last five tricks.

Here are all four hands:

                            

As you can see it makes on any lead, but I had chances to go down. If I play a second diamond, duck a heart, or play three spades before a diamond... 

North can ruff high on the spade and pull trump, but my 10 of diamonds grows up, allowing me to always take 2 diamonds, 3 spades, 2 clubs and a heart. 

The layout is very fortunate. (The hand record says it makes 3H, 5S and 5NT. I remember being annoyed it didn't list 2D.)

I can't say I had some master plan or could see all four hands, because honestly I got lucky. I had to guess and pray on every trick.

There are two morals to this story: 

1 - Take the guaranteed positive score whenever you can.

2 - Don't make gross takeout doubles.

Normally I would feel bad about making 790 on such a ridiculous hand, but when bad bidding pays off so much at club bridge, it feels nice to punish it once in a while.

Why is it gross? Good question. Takeout doubles are probably the most abused bids in bridge, and we've all made gross doubles at one point or another. Many bridge boardroomers do it several times a session. This is a good topic to brush up on, especially in conjunction with balancing and overcalling.

But here are the reasons X is a horrible bid by the South hand.

                                                      

1. South has passed original and is not fooling anyone.

2. The vulnerability is not favorable. Green vs Red I MIGHT consider taking a bid here.

3. The hand has 7 points. With 10 points AND favorable vulnerability I would consider a bid

4. The opponents have shown 24+ pts. What can partner have that makes you think you can come out ahead here? If partner has something he will get another opportunity to show it. In standard bidding this sequence only promises 22+, is not game forcing and might allow for a little more aggressive bidding, but not in this sequence.

5. The suits are not great. If I'm bidding with this hand, I'm bidding 2 hearts. But that's at favorable vulnerability, a few more points, vs Standard bidding, etc...

6. You give the declarer clues he is not entitled to. Pass is the most underrated bid of all time. Gross bids mislead partner. 

This hand isn't a great example, but let's say West is playing 3NT. If he takes the double as clubs and hearts the hand plays itself to 5NT. Declarer has 10 tricks off the top on a diamond lead. He will never play for the jack of clubs to drop or for it to be in North's hand and will always make 11 tricks which will be a cold zero when everyone else in the room is making 4NT or some number of spades.