Weekly Hand Analysis - Mark Olsky - April 24, 2023 - Redouble

 

Question: West has a take out double and North redoubles, is East required to respond to West's double?

Mark:

I'll start by answering the question as it was asked: Is the partner of a takeout doubler required to bid even if there is an intervening call that is not a pass (e.g. redouble as here). The answer is no. If East had nothing special to say about their hand, the RDBL has given the original doubler a chance to say something more and E would be off the hook. As it happens, East has plenty they want to say about the hand and they should not be swayed by North's bizarre RDBL (more on that shortly). East might think that making a free bid, since they are not REQUIRED to bid, is enough with this enormous hand. However, 2 clubs is not forcing and W is quite right to pass with a minimum takeout double. E should at least jump at the first opportunity, or make a cue bid of 2 D to begin a strong forcing sequence. It's true that W didn't absolutely promise 4 strong clubs with the takeout double. It might have been more major suit oriented with just tolerance for clubs. Still, the K and 2 small clubs would still make a heavy favorite to expect 7 club tricks. When E is given a reprieve with a second chance to bid after making an exceedingly weak bid of only 2 clubs, now knowing that partner had a minimum takeout double, I would just go to 5 clubs and my only fear would be that I'm missing a slam. 

  Back to North's bidding: A RDBL should show at least 10 points. South, with a great 19 should not consider anything less than game and should be exploring slam. Of course, 2 spades by S is strong and forcing, so when N passes, South might get the message that there was a misunderstanding. Still, S passing 3 clubs makes no sense unless they know that N is a completely unreliable bidder. At the very least, S should still bid 5 diamonds. The bidding by N-S is pretty irregular. If E-W recognize this, they should call the director.  The director would take action according to an assessment of N-S experience and capability. If they are novices, as I strongly suspect, the director should provide some teaching, perhaps after the game ends. Even intermediate players in N-S would have to be warned that their bidding is unacceptable. A more normal sequence after W makes the aggressive but acceptable takeout double , is a pre-emptive 3 diamonds by N which is only OK because their side is not vulnerable. After that, E-W should still reach 5 clubs, which, as expected, is destined to be made easily. South has such a good hand they may be tempted to double the vulnerable 5 clubs. A better decision would be to bid 5 diamonds, which goes down 2. E-W might not know that they can afford to double 5 diamonds and so may only get a score of +100. Ironically scoring 150 for 3 clubs making 5 is better than that. If E-W make the brave decision to double 5D, they still get only +300, which is a good sacrifice by N-S compared to going minus 600 or 750 if they doubled 5 clubs.