A Bit of Misjudgment

J 8 5 4
8 6 4 3 2
A 7 5
J
A 6 K 9 3 2
A 10 7 5 Q J 9
K Q 6 4 J 9 8
Q 10 6 A K 5
Q 10 7
K
10 3 2 Vul: Both
9 8 7 4 3 2 Opening lead: A of spades

WestNorthEastSouth
Pass
1 NT Pass 2 3
Dbl Redbl Allpass
I was sitting East and so was the recipient of the largesse here. When my LHO bid 3 clubs, I was intending to double, but didn't get a chance to since my partner did. Now the redouble could only make me feel more secure. My hand is good enough that I've got to count it twice to assure myself we'd better not go slambound. We've got a maximum of 31 hcp's and may have fewer and indeed do, while I don't have so much as a five-card suit. Indeed, there is a slam potential here, but nobody bid it, I presume on the same ground that I wasn't intending to.
The slam, if bid would have been worth 1440 points, the 3 club bid being a good sac if not redoubled. But if we're not bidding it, it's a phantom sac. The slam makes on 29 hcp's because the heart hook is on and diamonds are 3-3 (or the 10 falls short). Our IMP's were 14.07. Second place was .20. Yes, all those people making 3 overtricks in 3 no got a fifth of an IMP for their troubles, there were so many of them. Those making two overtricks moved into minus territory.
What was the redouble for? Obviously it had to be an S.O.S. That worthy sitting North could hardly have been feeling confident that 3 clubs was in the bag with a scattered 6 hcp's, one more than his partner held, though he couldn't have known that. But there's nowhere to run, and it's a mistake to think you can patch things up at that level with a simple S.O.S. South stepped into trouble, and the best thing they could do at that point would have been to hunker down and accept the lowest penalty they could muster. Now came the recriminations, self-recriminations, that is. That was poor judgment on my part, South began.
Poor judgment! That's about like a guy who gets pie-eyed drunk smashes into another car, killing two people saying, "I made a mistake". Yeah, a mistake, and if you add up your checkbook wrong that's a mistake but they don't really belong under the same word. This was more than a misjudgment. It was a complete failure to appreciate what brings in tricks and I kind of suspect, a complete misjudgment of the opponents (well, on North's part). Were we supposed to run on the redouble? Take it out? I can't help suspecting that that was partly behind the redouble. Now declarer's partner weighed in with a bit of self-criticism saying, well, he'd shown poor judgment and so they trotted off to the next hand.
I'm a-telling you, those redoubles can be very, very expensive. There is one exception where I indeed encourage a redouble as discussed elsewhere, i.e., when a slambound pair gets doubled at the five level -- or lower! Aside from that, I'd shy away from redoubles unless I was loaded for bear and trusted my partner. The S.O.S. redouble I find particularly costly. There is not necessarily a better spot than where you are, and particularly if partners like to get to the 3 level on 11 hcp's. No, you'd do well to hunker down and take your punishment this hand . . . and note what potential you need for picking up the majority of the tricks!