Many bidding decisions can be improved by putting some effort into analyzing issues that are likely to arise in the play of the hand. That exercise can also be helpful even when you aren’t considering making a bid.
In auctions where you know you’ll be defending, it may seem pointless to try to predict how the play will develop. There’s one aspect of the play, however, that you can influence, and that’s the opening lead.
Experienced players are always looking for opportunities to make lead-directing bids and doubles that will help partner defend. One way to ask for the lead of a specific suit is to make a “surprise” double of the opponents’ final contract. Most of these doubles have standard meanings, but they still generate confusion because the differences can be very subtle.
Knowledge of the standard interpretations can help you field undiscussed doubles and take advantage of more chances to use these bidding tools. Here’s a summary of the most widely accepted meanings for doubles of games and slams:
Doubles of games and notrump slams call for the lead of dummy’s first-bid side suit. This applies only to dummy’s natural bids, which include suits shown but not actually named, as in this auction:
RHO You LHO Partner
2NT Pass 3C * Pass
* (Stayman)
3S Pass 3NT DBL
Dummy’s Stayman inquiry implies a 4-card heart suit, so partner’s double asks for a heart lead.
Doubles of suit slams are Lightner doubles (devised in 1929 by Ted Lightner), which ask for an unusual lead. That eliminates the unbid suit, a trump or any suits bid by you or partner. The doubler therefore has one of two hand types: a strong holding in dummy’s first suit or a side-suit void, most often in a suit the opponents have bid.
Based on the auction and your hand, it’s up to you to figure out whether partner wants you to lead through dummy’s suit or lead the suit he can trump. If it’s the latter, you have to work out which suit that is. Absent other clues, your best guess is your longest suit.
The find-my-void meaning is most common when the doubler has preempted. It’s also the obvious conclusion when dummy hasn’t bid any non-trump suits. In most other types of auctions, assume that partner wants you to lead dummy’s first suit.
The caveats
Lead-directing doubles can make it possible for you to beat otherwise unbeatable contracts, but they also limit your ability to make other penalty doubles. If you think a game or slam will go down if partner makes his normal lead – a suit you bid, for example -- you may have to pass to be sure you get that lead. You can still double, but you want to be confident that your tricks won’t disappear after partner makes the unusual lead you’ve asked for.
Don’t read a special meaning into every double. A double asks for a specific lead only if the opponents are in a voluntarily bid contract. If you’ve pushed them into game or slam or they’re sacrificing, partner’s double is just a normal penalty double that calls for a normal lead.
A side-suit void can be a defensive trick the opponents didn’t anticipate, but that alone isn’t enough to justify a double of a small slam. It’s important to have some expectation of a second trick. Without it, the sole benefit of the Lightner double may be that it gets partner off to the only lead to hold the slam to 12 tricks.
In the next issue: Directing the
lead against notrump contracts
© 2015 Karen Walkerr