Too Much Aggression!

South held the following uninteresting hand in a round of the Suffolk Pairs dealt by West with no one vulnerable.

The bidding proceeded as follows.

Although South had diamond support he showed his spade suit and was pleased with the response. The question is what does South bid now? there are 3 options. He can Pass, or he can Double, or he can bid 5. North is likely to have a hand something like:

In this case North-South can make 5 and indeed could make 6 if the spades behave well. 5 is unlikely to go off more than two for a penalty of 300 and may indeed make if there is a void in either the East or West hands. South therefore bid 5 with some confidence. However, unfortunately for South this was the full deal:

5 doubled went off 3 for a penalty of 500 and a bottom! In this aggressive auction East-West had definitely won the battle. "Par" for the hand is 3 doubled going one off, but the bidding is never likely to stop below 4.

Well, who is to blame? At the table South took the blame, but opinion afterwards was that North was the one at fault. No not for his overbid, but for his bid over 5. North doesn't want to play in 5 and with two certain tricks, he should double 5 to stop South from bidding 5.

Contributed by: Birchman 30/04/07