[points schmoints]
The west pairs at the local dupe picked up a nice hand with a ‘hard’ 18 points. In bridge speak, hard values are made up of Aces and Kings, soft values of Queens and Jacks. The Wests heard South open one ♠, holding the ‘hard 18.’ West made a takeout double. North bid four ♠; East passed, South passed, and West doubled again. North, having a sixth ♠ an Ace and shortness, was confident four ♠doubled would make. To make sure his side would receive the maximum score, re-doubled! East powerless and with a very weak hand, passed. West thought with two trump tricks and three other possibilities for tricks, also passed.
| The bidding: | E | S | W | N |
| P | 1s | dbl | 4s | |
| P | P | dbl | re-dbl | |
| P | p | p |
Opening lead: ♦King
The hand:
NORTH
♠ O J 9 7 5 3
♥ Q 3
♦ 9 6 4 3
♣ A
WEST
♠ A K
♥ K 10 7
♦ K Q 8 5
♣ K 10 6 5
EAST
♠ void
♥ 9 8 6 5 4
♦ J 10 7 2
♣ 9 4 3 2
SOUTH
♠ 10 8 6 4 2
♥ A J 2
♦ A
♣ Q J 8 7
South made short work of the play:
1. ♦ King led, 3 from dummy, 7 from East and ♦ Ace won in hand.
2. ♠ 2 from South, West King, dummy 3, East ♥ 4.
3. West knew his partner had no cards so they cashed the Ace ♠ and led the ♣ five to the Ace.
4. South seized the moment, trumped a ♦ in hand and played the ♣ Queen.
5. West covered with the ♣ King to no avail, South trumped in dummy and trumped another ♦ in hand.
6. South cashed the ♣ Jack, discarded a ♥ from dummy and claimed the rest of the tricks.
Four ♠ doubled and re-doubled, making 5! (1480 points to North/South and a sure top).
*Thanks to Susan Kilo and Jan Mackey for this month’s hand.
[tip of the day]
Q. Kenny, when is the right time to double? If we don’t double we don’t seem to score high enough. When we are aggressive and do double, the opponents make their contract doubled!
A. Years ago a great player and good friend Ron Smith said, “KB, points schmoints! Double with trumps!”
Photo by Colin Miller of Strauss Peyton