Who should declare; who should defend?

Last month, at Bridge Base Online, therewere two deals that had the same decision for one of the players: to pass a takeout double at the three- level, turning it into a penalty double, or to bid higher with a balanced hand. Here is the first. Look only at the East hand and the start to the auction. What should East do? South opened with aweak two- bid. West’s first doublewas for takeout, his second the same and promising extra strength. Here, if East bids three no- trump ( which looks better than four hearts), hewould have gone plus at least 600 for the vulnerable game. But if he had passed and defended against three spades doubled, hewould have been a happy camper -- howhappy? At a fewtables, East corrected to four hearts. When the dummy appeared, life looked all right -until declarer learned about the 5- 0 trump split! But I think the key guideline is: With a balanced hand, defend; with an unbalanced hand, declare. Westwould start off with three top clubs, East playing high- lowto showhis doubleton, then discarding the diamond six.

West will continue with the high club nine, and East will overruff the dummy. After the diamond ace and another diamond toWest’s king, a third diamond will give East has second trump trick. With the spade ace still to come, that is down four, plus 800 nonvulnerable. So, although occasionally you will leave in partner’s takeout double with a balanced hand and the contract will make, in the long run you will bewell ahead of the game.