Stripe-Tailed Ape Double

A stripe tailed ape double is a strategic double of an opposing game contract. The doubler actually expects that the opponents can make a slam, but hopes they'll settle for the smaller score of the doubled game contract.

Should the opponents redouble the contract, conventional wisdom recommends running like a "stripe-tailed ape" to a sacrificial contract.

Examples of the scoring difference between a doubled game contract (making an overtrick) versus a small slam:

Contract	Vulnerable	Result	Score
5/-X	Not vul.	Made 6	650
6/	Not vul.	Made 6	920
5/-X	Vul.	Made 6	950
6/	Vul.	Made 6	1370
4/-X	Not vul.	Made 6	790
5/-X	Not vul.	Made 6	750
6/	Not vul.	Made 6	980
4/-X	Vul.	Made 6	1190
5/-X	Vul.	Made 6	1050
6/	Vul.	Made 6	1430

The following deal comes from a team game during the 1997 ACBL Fall Nationals. It was originally reported by Phillip Alder, ¹ now the New York Times bridge columnist.

Vul: None		Dummy
		T8543
		QJT7542
West		6		East
K972		—		AQ6
—				K
QJ72		South		K9543
KJ932		J		8754
		A9863
		AT8
		AQT6

At one table, the bidding proceeded as follows:

West Dbl 5

North 4 6

East 4 Dbl

South 1 5 All Pass

6 made for +1210 for North-South. At the other table, East-West did not compete over 5, choosing instead to make a stripe-tailed ape double. Losing only -750 in 5-X was worth a 10-IMP swing.

The late American expert and bidding theorist John Lowenthal is credited with devising the stripe-tailed ape double.

¹ Alder, Phillip (1997, November 05). Amherst Firecracker. Gadsden Times, p. B5.