16th October 2025
This is a hand taken from the recent Spring Nationals tournament which I played in and contains many useful lessons in what not to do!
The bidding began with 3 passes to West who opened 1♦. Now North made a weak jump overcall of 2♥ and this proceeded P P X P P back to South (me). I figured 2♥x was going to be pretty ugly and I’d try something else. There are reasons why I thought it might be right to do that after this bidding – can you identify what they were? See advanced section for the answer.
So I elected to redouble – which is usually played as “SOS” – i.e. “I think we may have a better spot to play – try something else partner”. To my delight he bid 2♠ and I was inwardly congratulating myself for getting us to a safer spade fit. My delight was very short lived though because West doubled 2♠ and now partner redoubled!! What on earth is going on?! He cannot possibly have a hand that wants to play there – he passed as dealer and then showed at least 6 hearts. The only possible explanation is he is ALSO doing an SOS redouble to “re-rescue” us! But where to go now?! See advanced section for some thoughts.
Eventually I made my 2nd terrible decision on the hand and passed to leave us in 2♠ redoubled. Which of course was a complete disaster. East did well and started with ♠K and another spade to West’s ♠J (see advanced section for why this is good defence). West then switched to ♣K. Partner got this wrong by thinking he had ♣KQ and ducked. On the club continuation he finessed, losing to ♣Q and now had his ♣A ruffed by West! The end result of the carnage was 4 tricks so 4 off redoubled and -1600! Even if he had got clubs right he would still have been -1000. A compete fiasco.
The title of this column gives a clue to some of the mistakes made here. There are certainly times when it may be right to run from a doubled contract but this isn’t one of them. 2♥x would have gone 2 off for -300 (you score ♣A, ♦AK and 3 trump tricks). Which is actually a GOOD score(!) because East West make 3NT for 400 (our teammates actually scored +430). Likewise 2♠x can also make 6 tricks for -300 (although in practice is more likely to be -500).
As so often is the case when you try and “rescue” things at bridge you actually end up just making it worse. Hence the maxim expressed in the title – when fixed, stay fixed! The same problem is commonly also seen with misfit hands where inexperienced players keep bidding their own suits instead of giving up and getting out before they get too high (and get doubled!).
On this hand I think there was another poor decision earlier too – can you identify it? See advanced section for details.
Key points to note
If you are going to preempt it’s better to get in early even with an imperfect hand. Waiting and coming in on the next round just gives the opponents much more information so they can better judge whether to double you or bid their own contract.
Be very wary of trying to “rescue” from a doubled contract (or from a misfit). Frequently you will just make matters worse – especially if the “rescue” means playing a level higher. What’s more sometimes where you are is not as bad as you fear it might have been anyway.
If you do rescue, a redouble is usually played as “SOS” – showing all the other suits (and frequently a void in partner’s suit). This avoids having to guess a suit yourself.
Consider what partner (or the opponents) have NOT bid in the auction as well as what they have bid. A good partner will usually have a reason for an earlier action (or inaction) – try to work out what it is.
After a disaster, hard though it is to do, you need to block it out and get onto the next board. Hundreds of imps are lost in bridge by players not concentrating on a board because they are still upset with their partner or teammates over what happened on an earlier one. Maintaining focus and temperament is vital to doing well at the game.
More advanced
Why did I try to run from 2♥x as South? Because I asked myself the question of why hadn’t partner opened a weak 2♥ on the previous round as dealer? There are usually two possible reasons:
⁃ he has a 2nd suit (which could be spades – it’s usually a bad idea to open a weak two with a side 4 card major as you might miss a fit there and maybe even a game if partner has a strong hand); or
⁃ he has a bad suit.
In both cases I figured 2♥x would be very ugly. How wrong I was!!
Why did partner try to run again? Maybe he figured I had a void heart and only 4 spades (because with 5+ I might have run to 2♠ myself instead of redoubling). If that is the case then I must have a 5 card minor so it may be better to play there. Also wrong!
What else might I have done over the redouble? The best option is actually to bid 3♥! This will of course be doubled and you now look like an idiot for pushing yourself up a level to go for -500 in 3♥x instead of -300 in 2♥x! But that’s still a lot better than -1000 or -1600 in 2♠xx. Even more importantly -500 is still not a disaster – you lose probably 2 or 3 imps if they make 3NT at the other table. As opposed to the 15 imps we did lose.
I said East did well to lead ♠K. When you are defending a doubled contract and you have a big majority of the points it’s almost always right to lead trumps. The rationale is that, as far as you can, you want to reduce the hand to no-trumps so that your high card points will stand up. Looked at another way – if the opponents have few points the only way they can score extra tricks is with ruffs. So you want to remove as many of those ruffs as you can. Had East not led spades, South’s diamond loser may have been able to be ruffed in the North hand.
There’s a few other important lessons from this fiasco:
1. If you are going to pre-empt it’s better to do it early. When you wait and come in later the opponents have already heard a round of bidding and are now far better placed to judge what to do. Had North opened 2♥ immediately it might well still have gone P P X P P but now South has no reason to attempt to run at all. By not opening the first time North gave East West more options and also planted the seed in partner’s mind that he might have had a 2nd suit.
2. Even if things have gone badly in the auction always consider what the best option available to you at that point of time is. Embarrassing and stupid though it looks to effectively run from 2♥x to 3♥x it was still definitely the best available option given what had already happened.
3. Don’t let a fiasco like this affect future boards. Not a word was said at the table and that’s as it should be. If you start yelling and screaming at each other after an insanity like this, the odds are you will just make more mistakes on future boards and cost even more imps! Hard though it is, you need to remain calm and put it behind you. You can’t change the result afterwards!
Julian Foster (many times NSW representative) ♣♦♥♠
