Comfort Zone

10th March – Board 17. Love All. Dealer North.

The importance of competing at pairs is absolutely paramount especially when the points are known to be evenly divided, or thereabouts.

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

West	North	East	South
	No	No	1H
No	2H	No	No
Dbl	No	2S	End

Opposite a passed partner West hasn’t really got enough ammunition to compete at his first opportunity, especially with only three small spades, but that all goes out the window when South shows a limited hand by passing 2H. Now it should be mandatory to double and breathe life back into the auction. The worst that can happen is that you play in a 4-3 spade fit but that’s not the end of the world and here with partner having a five-carder in spades it would be easy to make eight tricks, assuming you lead up to spades twice. Of course N/S might compete to 3H but if they do they will go negative. By competing you will have jockeyed the opposition out of their comfort zone, which is what you set out to achieve.