Bridge | 25 November 2023

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♣️.