Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Responding to a Take Out Double with a Balanced Hand and the Opponents Suit Stopped

Please read these posts to learn about the take out double.
Introducing the Take Out Double
Responding to a Take Out Double with a Weak Hand
Responding to a Take Out Double with an Intermediate Hand
Responding to a Take Out Double with an Opening Hand

Sometimes when Partner makes a take out double your best suit is the opponents suit!

For instance my Partner makes a take out double of my LHO opening 1♣ bid and I have:
♠A2
2
K93
♣KQT9874

Partner is asking me to bid ANYHING but ♣ but ♣ is the ONLY suit I have!!! What do I do?!?

Pass of course. By Passing I am converting the original take out double to a penalty double. I are saying "I have the ♣ covered Partner! They won't make this contract!"

Take another hand:
♠K2
KJ8
9732
♣KQT9

Here my best suit is also the opponents suit. But I don't have a lot of trump. I can't really Pass in this situation. Hmmmmm. What to do?

If you have strength but not length in that suit you can bid NT. The level of NT you bid depends on the number of HCP you have. You MUST have a guaranteed trick in the Opponents suit to bid NT. Preferably two tricks in their suit!

HCP Bid
8-10 1NT
11-12 2NT
13 or more 3NT


Some books say to bid 1NT with 6-10 HCP. I recommend 8 HCP. Remember, when your Partner makes a take out double bid they might only have 10 HCP. The 13 points they are counting INCLUDES Dummy points. You don't get to count Dummy points for shortness when you are playing in NT. So Partner is down to 10 HCP. If you only have 6 HCP the opponents might have 24 HCP between them. NT is probably not the best place to play then. So be safe and have at least 8 HCP to bid NT.

So with that in mind what do you respond with each of these hands when your LHO opens the bidding 1♣, Partner says "Double" and your RHO Passes?

Hand 1

♠QT
K73
KQ874
♣AJT



Hand 2

♠752
K75
JT2
♣AKT8



Hand 3

♠K54
753
Q53
♣K643



Hand 4

♠KJ2
J84
Q97
♣AT65



Hand 5

♠AQJ
A5
T732
♣KJT3



Hand 6

♠KQ9
98
AJ8
♣AT876



Hand 7

♠643
J9
KJ32
♣KQ86



Hand 8

♠865
Q6
J863
♣AKQT



Hand 9

♠T82
Q7
AKJT
♣KJT4



Hand 10

♠73
QT8
KT2
♣AKJ52



Hand 11

♠KT9
KJ
Q652
♣AJ82



Hand 12

♠J87
Q7
JT32
♣KQ82



Hand 13

♠T7
J87
AK2
♣K9432



Hand 14

♠85
K76
KQ76
♣KQ86



Hand 15

♠Q9
QT8
KT52
♣AJT9



Hand 16

♠952
J7
QJ87
♣AK82



Hand 17

♠KQ6
52
JT54
♣Q982



Hand 18

♠86
9652
Q54
♣KJ82



No comments:

Post a Comment