BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

At Love All, your partner opens 1 ♥ , and RHO intervenes with 2 ♣ . What would you bid? YESTERDAY, i said that this was an obvious case for making a penalty double.

This double doesn’t only tell partner that the opponent can’t make his contract, it also warns him that, in your judgment, you’ll get a better score from taking penalties than from playing in a contract yourselves.

in another scenario, with your side vulnerable and holding ♥ AJX, with a doubleton spade instead of the above holding, it would be wiser to bid your game rather than doubling for penalties, because you’d then need to defeat 2 ♣ by four tricks to gain on the hand. Your partner is expected to respect your penalty doubles, and he should always pass them — except when he has a sub-minimum opener without defensive tricks.

Those players who use the double as ‘negative’ and consequently have to pass 2 ♣ initially, run the risk that their partners will not reopen with a double, when the bidding returns to them. in this instance the north hand was: ♠ AJX, ♥ AK 10xxx,

♦ xxx, ♣ x, and in an event, those who doubled for penalties took 500 (3 down), whereas more than half the norths, opposite a pass of 2 ♣ , rebid 2 ♥ , instead of reopening with a double. QED.