Opportunity Knocked

	A J 10 7 6 3
	A
	A
	J 10 8 6 2
Q 9 8		4 2
Q 10 4 2		J 9 8 7
Q J 8 2		K 10 9 6 5 4
5 4		3
	K 5
	K 6 5 3	Vul: N-S
	7 3	Contract: 6 clubs, dbld (by East)
	Q 7 2	Opening lead: 2 of hearts

I got two of these in one day, two opportunities for slam-bound bidders to knock off a top board with a simple redouble a trick lower than their potential. The second example was a little different, involving a 5-level double when the bidders again had an overtrick at their disposal. It is given here

This pair wound up plus 1740 and of course beat everyone in little slam. And lost to everyone in grand slam. And how would they have fared with a redouble? Well, it woulda been close, but they would've bested those in 7 spades by 20 points.

Here is the scoring for those a little hazy about how those points add up. Trick score (redoubled) would be 480. No, don't count that overtrick yet, for it is scored differently on doubled & redoubled contracts. Bonus for a little slam: 750. That's 1230 and the rest of the scoring is in hundreds and should be easy to add on (since it reaches a thousand for any second grader): 500 for the vulnerable game, 100 for making a redoubled contract and 400 (!) for the vulnerable & redoubled overtrick!

Those making 7 clubs got 2140, while 7 spades brought in 2210 -- in a risky contract dependant on a finesse, scoring a mere 70 points better'n that ultra safe 7 clubs. Oh, they got the top score, but if only this pair'd redoubled, the spade grand slammers would've been looking at second place.

Is there a downside? Well, one can't expect any strategy or theory to work 100% of the time. But if either partner was leaning toward grand slam, the redouble allows you a better score than the grand slam bid if there is indeed a reasonable play for 13 tricks, and if there isn't such a trick available, why then you're clearly better off than the guy bidding 7, no?