Question: Was North's use of a Redouble correct?
Mark:
This is an unusual, but very good auction by all
players. After the double, N obviously has 4 options:
a. Raise hearts to 3 or 4,
b. pass
c. Redouble.
d. bid a new suit as a game try requesting help in that suit.
Only highly seasoned regular
partnerships would assign a precise meaning to the redouble that both partners
would understand to have a precise meaning. If I encounter that redouble from
my partner lacking prior discussion of this exact auction, I'd say it shows a
little extra beyond a minimum 1 heart response. Maybe it's a 5th heart, maybe a
couple of extra points, give or take 9HCP. That's pretty much a good
description. There's a bit of overlap between 3 hearts and redouble by north.
Some players would bid 3 hearts as a kind of preemptive bid, showing a 5th
heart and not a real game invitation and would redouble to show a real game try
without a specific help suit. My personal preference is the latter approach,
so, after discussing it with my partner (in advance, of course) I would bid 3
hearts rather than redouble with the north hand. There is no commonly agreed
standard for this auction. Redouble or 3 hearts is correct, depending on how
you think partner will take it. I wouldn't pass and I wouldn't make a new suit
game try. If N bids 3 hearts instead of RDBL, you probably buy the hand at 3
hearts. A good question is whether that's good or bad. If E leads a spade
against 3 hearts, the contract almost certainly fails by 2 tricks (vulnerable)
for the dreaded 200. A diamond lead or anything but a spade probably generates
only 100 compared to the 130 that you make at 4 diamonds. For this hand, the
redouble is more successful, so who's to say it's not correct?
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