BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

Your partner deals and opens 1 ♠ , over which your r.H.o. comes in with 2 ♦ . What would you respond, and would it make any difference if instead of bidding 2 ♦ , your r.H.o. had made a take-out double? In the first instance you would make the perfectly simple limit bid response of 2 ♠ , showing 6-9 points and 4-card trump support. the intervention makes no difference at all when your hand contains a direct suit raise for partner.

had the intervention been a take-out double, it makes all the difference.

the limit bids over a double, though they will always guarantee four-card trump support, can be made on fewer than the normal accepted count.

the idea, of course, is to make life as difficult as possible for your left-hand opponent, who has been asked by his partner to bid, but may be quite unable to do so at a high level.

therefore, bid 3 ♠ , and any action by the doubler’s partner will have to start at the four-level.