Financial crisis causes double to weaken

Hello Chillians

Like everyone else, Chilli is not immune to the global financial crisis, so here at Chilli Towers we have been conducting a mid-winter review of our operations, and we have come to two important decisions which I will tell you about.

First, although we have always believed in rewarding our staff richly for success, we recognise the zeitgeist and, unlike some, we will no longer be paying ourselves huge bonuses. One can safely say that those juicy +1100s and +1400s are history.

Second, after an intensive management consultation using the latest 'two pints of beer' methodology, our review of the system ended with quiet satisfaction overall but a recognition of two areas where we could do better. With our usual zeal for improvement, we've come up with two small but very significant refinements in these areas. I'll blog about one here and now, and the other next week.

The strong double refers to our opening double of their one of a suit, which might be either their opening bid or their first response. It shows 16+ points, and is intended to be a replacement for our lost 1. The auction stays neutral, and as far as possible we retain the normal neutral structure.

The strong double has been around for a long time. The main reason for its existence is that we were trying to avoid a whole new set of continuations that would be needed after a standard takeout double. So if we could squeeze everything a bit (well, quite a bit) we could pretend that they hadn't bid and continue on our neutral way.

In practice, the strong double is a bit of a pig over one of a major, and particularly so over 1. All the continuation ranges have to be compressed, so we have to respond 1NT on a very wide range of hands, leaving doubler with a difficult decision as to whether to continue. A lot of weaker overcalls have to be placed unsatisfactorily in a 1NT or 2 overcall, thereby polluting their world too. And finally there is the rather ugly and somewhat unsound three-suited cue bid.

During the review we realised that the original main reason for the strong double had now gone. If we made an opening double of one of a major be a takeout double and made it disturb the auction, then the weak 2NT and shunts would provide all the vocabulary we could possibly want responding to it on stronger hands, while two-level suit bids would sensibly all be to play.

A little research and some practice showed that the idea was a significant improvement. The scheme:

• An opening double of one of a major becomes takeout, disturbing the auction


• The immediate cue bid of one of a major is retired as a takeout - pending some perceived better use, it reverts to being natural


• 2 over 1 reverts to being the equivalent of a 2 opener, so e.g. six cards in second position


• 1NT over one of a major remains as neutral 12-15 without necessarily a stop in their suit (which continues to be a real money spinner) but it will now always be a balanced hand


• A 1 overcall of their 1 continues to show an opening hand with four spades (another money spinner), so double instead will deny a minimum hand with four spades.

What about over their one of a minor? Over 1 the strong double works perfectly as a substitute for 1, but over 1 it's slightly cloudy. But if you think about it, there are very few (if any) hands of less than 16 points that cannot be handled with an overcall of one of a major, 1NT or at the two-level. The exception would be the minor two-suited type that would have opened 1, and surely the best action with these hands over their 1 will be to pass smoothly and await developments.

So the idea is that the neutral strong double remains as now over their one of a minor. But we do scrap the takeout cue bid idea, which was never necessary over one of a minor in the first place.

Alan

The Chilli bidding system is described and defined at chillibidding.org.