Redoubling

The redouble is a tricky bid. If you mean it, you'd better first give consideration to the question of whether the opponents might take you at your word and run. Have they indicated a super-fit themselves? Frank Stewart had a hand some months back where an incautious double brought a still more incautious redouble, leading the doubler to decide on an escape to four spades, which should have been a good sac, except that on a defensive error, he made it!

That's an expensive redouble. Furthermore, though you might pick up a bundle of points in an IMP game on a successful redouble, the bid hardly pays in matchpoints, except perhaps below two hearts, where a double isn't game and you might be suckered into an overtrick or two but lower-than-game score. In the other direction, I recall the laydown 6 no hand where a pair played in 5 no doubled for a poor score. They had a gift handed to them and declined it: if it makes 6, the redouble will bring them a better score than a slam bid, and if by chance it makes only 5, they're obviously better off than the slam bidders. But they should not let themselves be suckered into a 5 doubled bid if they smell slam.

But by and large, in matchpoint play, and except for the qualifications just given -- be careful about missing game and missing slam -- a doubled contract will put you ahead of just about everybody if you make, and if you don't, then you'd have still less reason to want to redouble. Which brings us to a second use of a redouble, the S.O.S.

That is a redouble asking for a rescue from an untenable doubled contract. Like: one club, double, pass, pass, redouble! I don't believe I've ever used the bid and would be hard pressed to find situations where it makes a whole lot of sense, aside from that just given, where you've opened with a short club. Then I suppose I would use it.

In any event, I've come across some hands recently where a presumed S.O.S. redouble has taken what promised to be a poor result to a disaster. And I'd like to caution the reader against the presumption that you can solve untenable doubled contracts with a "save me partner" redouble. You'd do far better to confine your original bidding to reasonable risks and handle the doubles when they arise. Even a defeated doubled contract isn't necessarily a bad score. Above is a link to some examples.

There was one use of the redouble that I hadn't thought to include here until I scrolled down the scores on one tournament and found a redouble that had turned into a disaster in the opposite direction, i.e., for the doubling side. The bidding goes one heart, double, redouble. The redouble promises at least 10 hcp's (no reference to a fit) and can be devastating -- to the doubling side, as indeed it was here: passed out, making 6! This was worth more than a bid slam would have been and almost as much as a non-vul grand slam!

Now, you've got to tread warily when you hear your takeout double rewound. That's 10 plus hcp's, not just "points", and so that side figures to have the preponderance, perhaps a marked preponderance of the strength, and if there is no good fit around the table, no 8-card or better fit for the doubling side, which is no rarity, the doubling side can be rapped on the knuckles for severe penalty, yes, even at the one level. I have seen it.

So I would offer a few words of advice here, the first one being that you almost surely want to run somewhere, when you hear that redouble. I might put it this way: If you run, you may be in trouble. If you don't run, you will be in trouble. Okay, perhaps once in a blue moon you can let it ride. Actually, I remember fondly the session that started off with a bang when my partner doubled a one diamond opener, and with five diamonds headed by the Q J 9, I was prepared to pass for penalties when I heard Redouble on my right. Well, I didn't feel any less inclined to pass for penalties. Pass on my left. My partner didn't know what to make of it. You don't let a redouble ride, do you? And couldn't I have told him what my best suit was? Finally he chanced a heart bid, pass, pass, two clubs on my left, pass, two diamonds (!) preference, and need I tell you what I came out with? When I was ready to let a (doubled) one bid go for penalties? Down two for minus 500. I forgot to look later and see if the moon was blue, but surely it was. However, I will say again, you'll almost always wanna take your side out of that dangerous redouble. Aside from the disaster just mentioned, here are some others:

During this same scrolling, I saw a redouble on a weak-two opening, this by a super-strong hand of about 18 hcp's and this, too, brought disaster with some overtricks.

A Life Master with over a thousand points stepped back into disaster after a temporary reprieve on this bidding, starting on her right: one spade, double, redouble, two clubs, pass, pass, two diamonds, pass, pass, 3 clubs! ! ! !, down 1400 and one defender pointed out to her partner how she'd cost their side a trick! The two club bidder had 6 hcp's, two of which were the queen of spades sitting before the spade bid. I always wondered if the takeout doubler confused her partner's bid with the principle that if it's a "free bid", it must show some points, when in fact, her partner was using the opportunity to show the only 4-card suit he had! Might as well. You've gotta run. She should have been resisting an impulse to turn to LHO and say "Thank you" (for the two diamond bid). Aside from other principles of bidding, the doubler's bidding of the same values twice led to the disaster. If you make a takeout double with minimum values, you're finished (aside from forcing bids or maybe request for preference). You've announced your values, and no, a fit doesn't really make the hand strong enough for another bid. Rather it vindicates the worth of your takeout double. If you started the hand with minimum values for a takeout double, you've still got a minimum, no?

This came from another Life Master. We were playing a casual game between sessions at a tournament, when the bidding went, starting on his right, one club, double, redouble, pass, pass -- "that's not game, is it?" -- and on being reassured it was not, "pass". No, one club doubled and redoubled isn't game. But with as little as two overtricks, it's worse!. And they had about 3 overtricks, I believe. A little ironically, it wasn't but a few weeks later when another player described the same situation about a woman who thought since it wasn't game, it must be safe to pass, as I sat across from this same Life Master. I held my tongue.

So I would advise you to go somewhere when you hear a redouble, and if you are doubled, you'll just have to hunker down and play it out. Accordingly, I have always followed this policy: if I bid after the redouble, I've got a five-card suit, and if I pass, I don't have a five-card suit, and my partner can only try to escape with his cheapest and best-looking suit. Once, for what it's worth, I bid (and made) four spades on that bidding: One something on my left, double, redouble. Well, I was looking at 6 spades to the A K J. Or was it seven. I would like to have seen what RHO held. He was an operator, and I suspect was trying to fake me out.

In the other direction, on the most recent case where I redoubled, I subsequently doubled a one-spade bid (or was it two spades?) and my novice partner didn't know what it meant, but took me out to her good suit, thank heaven, for the opponents could have made 3 spades. So you're not always in deep trouble when you hear a redouble. But you will almost surely be if you let the redouble ride, I warrant ye.