Diamonds to Gold Deal 1

By: Larry Cohen

Diamonds to Gold Deal 1

In the first of four "Diamonds to Gold" deals, I held:

spadesKQ9
heartsA76
diamonds962
clubsA976. Vulnerable against not, I opened 1diamonds icon. Why not 1clubs icon? Because my partner (David Berkowitz) and I were playing a Strong Club System where 1clubs icon would promise a big hand. 
 
LHO (Peter Schaltz, from the host country, Denmark) overcalled 2diamonds icon, which they played as natural. My partner made a Responder's double for takeout negative double and RHO passed. Now what?

Do I bid a 3-card major? 2NT without a stopper? My 4-card club suit?  How about passing? If they make it, its not game (even doubled). This was the full deal:

Vul:E-W
Dlr: East
? J10876
? Q954
? --
? J1084
 
? A543
? 83
? Q8
? KQ532
 ? KQ9
? A76
? 962
? A976
 ? 2
? KJ102
? AKJ107543
? --
 
 
  West    North    East    South  
  1diamonds icon2diamonds icon
DoublePass3clubs icon5diamonds icon
PassPassDoubleAll Pass
I decided to bid 3clubs icon and everyone got a chuckle when LHO now jumped to 5diamonds icon! This came around to me and I foolishly doubled. As you can see, they had 11 easy tricks, for +550. That score was achieved at almost every table in play. At most tables it went 1diamonds icon 5clubs icon Double, All Pass.

What if I had passed 2diamonds iconX? That would make with 3 overtricks. The score for that is only 480! I could have saved 2 IMPs against 550. I've never been -480 in such fashion. 
 
A "striped-tail ape" double is one where you double the opponents in game to keep them from reaching slam. (If they redouble, you run like a striped-tail ape). Here, I could have doubled them a partscore for a lower score than was actually achieved. Maybe it should be called the "striped-tail-ape Pass."