One of the challenges of modernizing your bidding system is making sure that your new methods are compatible with your existing agreements.
Popular treatments for doubles can be especially difficult to incorporate. If you’re trying to adapt to the trend toward playing more low-level doubles as DSI (“Do Something Intelligent”) or other types of takeouts, you have to decide when and if these messages will supersede the meanings of your conventional doubles.
Here are some situations that can cause confusion:
You LHO
Partner RHO
1C Pass 1H 1S
DBL* 2S DBL
* (Support double – 3-card heart support)
The support double is a widely played convention that allows opener to clarify how many cards he holds in responder’s suit. Opener's decision is relatively easy – in this auction, double shows three hearts and a raise shows four -- but the follow-ups can be tricky.
The standard agreements for partner’s second bid are that below-game jumps are invitational and all non-jump bids, including new suits, are non-forcing. The only way for responder to force to game is to bid it or cuebid the opponent’s suit.
Do those meanings apply when an opponent competes over the support double? In the auction above, partner is no longer under pressure to bid something, so there may a benefit in assigning other meanings to his freebids. You might prefer to play a double as a game try in hearts, a notrump search or some other artificial takeout.
You LHO
Partner RHO
1C Pass 1S
2D 2S DBL
Those who play Snapdragon doubles may have a dilemma here. This convention is used after an opponent opens a suit, you overcall and responder bids a third suit. Partner’s double in fourth position shows constructive values with 5+ cards in the fourth suit and tolerance for your suit (at least a doubleton).
A typical sequence is 1C by RHO – 1D by you – 1S by LHO – Double by partner to show a hand such as ♠K42 ♥AQ1065 ♦103 ♣654 . The auction above is similar, but partner is a passed hand, so it’s not clear his double is intended as – or even should be -- the Snapdragon convention.
With 5+ hearts, partner could have overcalled 1H, so a better meaning for his double in this auction might be four cards in the unbid major and 3+ cards in your suit. Or should it be just “cards” – good defense, tolerance for your diamonds, maybe interest in notrump if you have a stopper?
In both of these situations, your holding in the opponent’s suit might give you a clue about partner’s intentions (the shorter you are in spades, the more likely it is he has a trump stack), but that’s not a guarantee. The only thing you can count on is that no matter how fond either or both of you are of imaginative doubles that send subtle messages, a good partner won’t spring one on you at the table.
Until you can develop clear agreements, the safest strategy is to assume the standard, “non-DSI” meaning and trust partner to do the same. In both auctions above, the simplest interpretation is the double shows good defense without a fit.
If partner had five hearts in the first auction or three diamonds in the second, he’d make it easy on you and just bid the suit. If he had an idea for an artificial meaning for his double, he’d make the “normal” call for now and propose it to you later.
Do you have any agreements or conventions that tell you the meaning of this double?
You LHO Partner RHO
1D 1H Pass
1S 2D DBL
More about this and other ambiguous doubles in the next issue.
© 2023 Karen Walker