WHEN THEY BID AND YOU DOUBLE

Eugen RosenstockHuessy, a historian who discussed speech and language as the dominant shapers of human character and abilities in every social context, wrote, "Grammar and logic free language from being at the mercy of the tone of voice. Grammar protects us against misunderstanding the sound of an uttered name; logic protects us against what we say having double meaning."

Despite his best endeavors, sometimes partner makes a call at the bridge table that leaves you wondering whether he means a or b. Occasionally, that ambiguous action will be a double. One example occurs when East opens, say, four hearts, and South doubles. Is that for takeout or penalty?

Unfortunately, it is both! South could have a classic 4=1=4=4 distribution, or he could have a strong, balanced hand. North passes with a balanced hand or bids with an unbalanced hand.

In today's deal, what is East's double of three notrump?

It would be illogical to think it is for takeout. There is only one unbid suit, and why wouldn't East have acted earlier? It must be a penalty double. But is that the only component?

No! It is a lead-directing double, asking partner to lead the first suit bid by the dummy.

So, here, West leads his singleton spade. East takes the trick and continues the suit. Declarer wins with dummy's king and plays a club, but East produces his ace, then

bridge

cashes the rest of his spades to defeat the contract. Note that without the lead-directing double, West would surely have selected the diamond four, giving declarer an easy 10 tricks.

Copyright United Feature Syndicate (Asia Features)