What should I Bid? - Best enquiry for August 2008

The best submission for August came from Ashwani Mehta.

 Hand:  Vulnerable vs non vulnerable, I held:

QJ6  AKQ8653  K4  7

Bidding:	West	North	East	South
		1	1	Double
	4	?

Comments:    What should I bid now - pass, double or 5? Partner held 82 4 AQ752 KJ1063. If I double how should partner continue?

Sartaj's Reply:

Hi Ashwani,

Let's see the problem first from our perspective 1 (1) X (4).

We should not really be bidding 5 with a trump trick in their suit and no primary fit our way. I can't see a compelling reason to commit to the 5-level. That leaves pass and double. This more or less depends on partnership style.

Technically, we all play that double is extra-values but the key difference is that one half of the world plays that partner should pass most of the time and the other half says partner should never pass without length/strength in their suit.

I can understand pass but double feels right. If partner bids over double, we should have a play for 5 or 6 and if he passes hopefully they will go down.

Now let's see the issue from partner's perspective with a 2155.

With a doubleton in the opponents' suit and a singleton in partner's suit, he would probably pass the double.

It's tricky these high level doubles, sometimes they show values, other times they are takeout and sometimes they are extra values...and I don't think anyone really has worked out every single situation.  Here, for example, the 2155 hand might argue that opener's double is pure takeout and thus feel they have an automatic 4NT bid.

In my regular partnerships, we don't have a general rule about this but I think our style is on the lines of

• if neither of us has bid a suit, then double is takeout 
• if we've bid one suit then opener's double is takeout, responder's double is values
• if we've bid two suits, then double is extra values

The auction 1 (1) X seems to best fit in the "we've bid two suits" category.

Happy high level doubling !
Sartaj

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