At high-stake rubber bridge, it’s not uncommon for players – nearly always male, I should add – to react to a penalty double as though a direct challenge has been made to their manlihood: out comes the redouble card, essentially quadrupling the stakes. But they have a point: in bridge lingo, if you make a doubled contract you get a bonus not for the double, but for the ‘insult’. Besides, it’s sometimes right to redouble – the fact that it seldom happens outside of rubber bridge is simply because others are far less gutsy.
Among tournament players, a redouble is used more commonly as an SOS: partner, please bid a different suit! And this can be very useful. But it also has its risks. The most dramatic example I’ve seen of a redouble gone wrong was during the European Champions Cup several years ago, when the brilliant French player Philippe Cronier made a psyche bid:
Non-vul vs vul, Cronier (North) was intent on bidding over 5♣️ but how to get his partner to bid his longer major? Double could be passed (and was anyway the wrong bid), and he wasn’t strong enough to bid 6♣️. So he came up with an ingenious solution: he bid 5♦️, knowing he’d be doubled, and he could then redouble for SOS. But his partner misunderstood – he though it was a fearless battle-cry.
Who was in the wrong? Yes, Cronier took a gamble. But it was a brilliant one. South, looking at his own values, should have smelt a rat. Besides, if Cronier thought he was making 5♦️, would he not be happy to be doubled, rather than risk anything? When the dust had settled, he and his partner had gone for one of the biggest penalties I’ve seen: – 4,300.
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