Lebensohl Revisited

25th September – Board 14. Love All. Dealer East.

When partner doubles either at the one or two level the partner of the doubler has a two-fold responsibility – he must not only name his best suit but also show how strong he is. Sadly several people forgot that holding the East hand last Thursday although in some cases it didn’t seem to matter.

	North: S 4 3 H Q 3 D Q J 9 7 6 C K 10 6 5
West: S K 6 H K J 9 6 D K 4 3 C A Q 8 2		East: S A 8 2 H A 10 7 5 4 D 5 C J 7 4 3
	South: S Q J 10 9 7 5 H 8 2 D A 10 8 2 C 9

West	North	East	South
		No	2S
Dbl	No	4H	End

When West doubles the weak 2S opening East really has a clear-cut bid of 4H. If that is hard to swallow just imagine that partner had opened 1H when it would be in order to splinter with 4D with that seven-loser hand. (The heart suit opposite a 1H opening is just one-loser because of the five-card support.) Clearly then it should be worth bidding game here. Because East has been forced to bid, a bid of 3H might contain no points at all, in which case a raise to 4H on the West hand would be catastrophic, although that is what happened on more than one occasion with far from catastrophic consequences. With a very weak hand East should bid 2NT, Lebensohl, demanding 3C from the doubler and now East passes if that is his suit or converts to 3D or 3H when West is not expected to bid on. The corollary to all this is that an actual bid of 3C, 3D or 3H by responder shows some values although not enough for game. But here East should really take all the pressure off his partner by bidding game himself.