Posted 10:13 PM by Floyd

Here's one more hand from the District 21 Flight B GNT's of two weekends past.

At none vulnerable, second seat, you hold Axxx x Axxx Kxxx.

Your right hand opponent opens a 10-12 notrump. You pass and LHO signs off with 2. This is passed to you, and you double. Now LHO redoubles, and again there are two passes to you. What do you call?

When my right-hand-opponent held this hand in our first round GNT match, he ran to 2. We started doubling and he finally played in 3 doubled. This went for 300, and if he had passed he would have scored 600 or 1000, as his partner was 5332 with KQJxx.

Many players don't know this -- including Larry Cohen and David Berkowitz, who lost the 1998 World Championships due to a similar mixup. Passing a redouble is penalty when it is behind the trump length or above the one level, and this auction qualifies on both counts. (Back in the Culbertson days ALL passes of redoubles were penalty, even after one of a suit - double - redouble, because people psyched a lot.)

Our teammates were -120 so we gained 5 imps. Had we been -500 we would have lost 12 imps; this 17-imp swing was more than our eventual margin of victory.