BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

WHAT would you bid here after partner opens 1 ♠ , and would you bid differently if LHO doubles 1 ♠ ? ONE favourite source of information for this column is from readers who have had a duplicate session with an expert partner and have been berated for doing the ‘wrong thing’. These examples are of special interest when the reader has been following my advice.

This hand gained our poor reader a double roasting from her expert for bidding 2 ♦ after 1 ♠ was doubled, and then for her choice of opening lead when East eventually became declarer (see tomorrow). Without the double, it would always be correct to pass 1 ♠ here, even if occasionally you might strike lucky by bidding 1NT, and hearing partner rebid in another suit.

But the double makes a world of difference to your opportunity. I always recommend you should use it to send an SOS to partner — you have a weak hand, you don’t like his suit and you have a long, fairly strong suit of your own: a perfect description of 2 ♦ for this hand.

The alternative style, which seems to be common among tournament players, is to bid naturally as if there had been no double. I still fail to see the logic in this, and no one has yet been able to explain it to me.