Imagine you’re at an auction. As it begins, you turn to the other bidders and, with a few short words, scare them into remaining silent. Moments later, the hammer falls and you pick up a complete bargain.
In real life, you’d need to use outright threats to stop people bidding. Not so in bridge – it happens all the time. It’s the power you wield when you’re ‘at favourable vulnerability’ – in other words, when your opponents are vulnerable and you’re not. Being at favourable means you can bid far more pre-emptively and aggressively than your opponents: you have less to fear from the double card. I’ve never forgotten the tip given to me by David Gold many years ago: when partner opens at favourable, and the next hand passes, never pass! Bid anything! You’d be amazed how often it shuts out the opposition.
The beauty of this advice was displayed to devastating effect by David’s teammate, Simon Hult, in the recent Gold Cup finals (which they went on to win):
West (Peter Crouch) couldn’t double 1◆ with only two hearts. East (Simon Cope) couldn’t double 1♥ with only two spades. When South (Gunnar Hallberg) raised to 2♥ it was obvious to Simon that the oppo had game on, so he jumped to 4♥. With the opponents’ points perfectly divided, there was no reason for either to think his partner had anything. Of course 4♥ went four down – but at 50 a trick, what a steal against 3NT!
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