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What should I Bid? - Best enquiry for February 2010 Maura Rhodes made the best submission for the month of February. Hand: Dealer East, with EW vulnerable, I was North on the following deal:
Comments: What is double? Take out or penalty? My partner took my double as take out but I meant it as penalty and we are not sure how best to play it. He thinks it should be take out showing spades- do you agree? Kieran's Reply: Maura, In the old days, everybody played this double as penalty and nobody thought anything of it. It's not clear that they were wrong, either.
However, as with an awful lot of early doubles in the modern bidding canon, I'd
regard this one as more like takeout, or cards, or "hey, I'm here". I'd be
loathe to describe it as simply showing spades (a 3
With double as some kind of takeout thing, North has two choices. The first is
to bid 3NT, but at the vulnerability this does feel like trading +800 for an
uncertain +400. The other is to pass (preferably without stopping to think).
This might get a bigger penalty than a penalty double, since East might keep
bidding, or even raise hearts. (Many players would regard West's 3
By the way, words fail me about West's 3
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