Poor Recompense

23rd May – Board 9: East/West Vul. Dealer North.

When partner preempts you should always maintain the barrage if you can, especially at favourable vulnerability.

	North: S Q 6 H 4 D K J 9 7 4 3 2 C Q 9 3
West: S K J 8 3 H A 3 D A 8 C A K 10 7 5		East: S 10 9 7 4 H K Q 8 7 6 D none C J 6 4 2
	South: S A 5 2 H J 10 9 5 2 D Q 10 6 5 C 8

West	North	East	South
	3D	No	5D
Dbl	No	???

Just look at that South hand. With four-card trump support in a weak hand and at the right colours 5D should be a stand out bid after partner preempts. What can poor West do? The ubiquitous double is the answer, neither fish nor fowl, and East does well to pass and not bid 5H. It’s true that East/West can make 5S but nobody is going to bid that so a paltry 300 is the only reward  - poor recompense for the vulnerable game. Against me they did even better. South did pass the preempt and as West I had a problem. If I doubled I feared partner would bid 4H and 4C was just too feeble to be considered. So I bid 3NT, which while it would have been slaughtered on the actual layout is not a bad contract, needing as it does just for the queen of clubs to make an early appearance. However South bid 4D and I doubled that for just 100, partner doing well yet again by remaining silent and not bidding 4H.