David Stevenson
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Much as I dislike to disagree with Julian or Stewart, while both of the methods they describe are sensible, I have never heard of either of them described as an action double. Perhaps the main thing this proves is that it is dangerous to use names for agreements since other people will understand them differently.
The action double I have always understood is a rare and fairly dangerous action where a player makes a high level preempt and decides he should bid again when opponents overcall. Suppose you pick up a freakish hand with nine hearts and open 4H. 4S by your opponent passed round to you. Now because of your nine hearts you feel you really should bid again: some players play that double now says I want to bid 5H but I am doubling in case you want to pass it. I have always heard this referred to as an Action double.No, there are no exceptions to the alerting of doubles below 3NT . In the past the EBU made a rule that unusual doubles should be alerted. This rule was a total and complete failure because everybody had their own ideas as as to what was usual and what was unusual. So the EBU came up with the simplest rule possible for the alerting of doubles. When a natural suit bid is involved double is either takeout or alertable. What could be simpler?
The trouble is that for some reason people try and complicate it or say it doesn’t work or have their own ideas. I have no idea why. For example you gave a sequence in which 3H is natural so a penalty double must be alerted. Perhaps you would argue that everybody plays it is penalties. There are two things wrong with that, first it is not true, in fact I personally play it as a game try not a penalty double nor a simple takeout double and second when you have a rule that you do not alert in obvious situations you have made the rule far more complicated and unworkable.
There does not seem to be a real difficulty in disclosure. If she plays it as a strong takeout then all she needs to do is to alert and explain it as “strong takeout”. It does not matter if it is not the way other people play it. Whether it is a good idea or not it is perfectly legal.
Alerting rules are not based on Acol, standard or otherwise. When you double an artificial bid with no alert it indicates you hold the suit named, so your double is not alertable.
You should correct the explanation to what 2S shows, despite the fact that your hand will be different from your corrected exclamation. You are under no obligation to tell opponents you have misclicked. Your only obligation to opponents is to give them the correct information about what your calls mean.
There are no regulations for minimum or maximum strengths for opening bids at the 3- or 4-level. So it is certainly not illegal.
However having said that there is a question of disclosure. You are not meant to play things that are secrets from the opposition. So if your 4S opening will usually be a hand of this number of playing tricks then perhaps you should be alerting and describing this opening in some way. If on the other hand this was just a freak occurrence and normally you will have a hand that other people would open 4S then there is no problem.It is an interesting fact that in club bridge players are getting more and more into the habit of not opening at the one level with hands containing seven or more cards in a suit, and 4S openings generally are tending to get stronger and stronger, despite the likelihood of missing slams.
No, natural jump overcalls, whether weak, intermediate or strong, are neither alerted nor announced. Of course a lot of bridge these days is played on BBO with self alerting and self explaining and it does no harm to explain rather more of the regulations require. RealBridge has three types of explaining, self alerts, partner alerts and screens. Partner alerts is normal in clubs but with self alerts or screens your explanations can be neither seen nor heard by Partner and again explaining a bit more than is required is helpful.
On a related subject weak jump overcalls are something around the range 6 to 10, intermediate jump overcalls something around the range 11 to 15 and strong jump overcalls are typically 16+. While strong jump overcalls have gone out of fashion there is an unfortunate trend for some people to play intermediate jump overcalls but call them strong jump overcalls which is totally confusing.
It depends on the situation. In a lot of cases opponents don’t really need details, which is why Stayman is acceptable even though it is played in many different ways, but that is for the next round. Lebensohl is similar, players usually do not need to know more. The problem with names comes when people do not play the first bid in the same way, though they may think they do!
Most players just write Lebensohl in the Explain box, or even Leb. While the continuations might be different in Lebensohl Light from other uses of Lebensohl you can explain them when you make them. If someone does not know Lebensohl they can always click on the box for a further explanation, which should be something like ‘Forces 3C, shows a variety of hands’.
If you only play Lebensohl as to play at the 3 level then a better explanation might be ‘Forces 3C, shows a weakish hand with a long suit’.
I gave it as either or. If you double a natural suit opener and it is for takeout it is not alertable. Consider a more complicated sequence:
(1NT) Dbl (2H) Dbl. Is the second double alertable assuming 2H is natural? I said such doubles are either takeout or alertable. Now in this sequence some play it for penalties, some for takeout, some something else. Now I say it is either takeout or alertable, so if you play it as takeout you do not alert it, if you play it as anything else, penalties, or optional as some people play, or something else, it is alertable.
Yes, I am afraid you are incorrect. The EBU tried some rules, which everyone got wrong, so now they have come up with simple basic rules, which people still get wrong.
Assume you are doubling 3NT or below:If you are doubling a natural suit bid (that includes a non forcing short club or short diamond opening) then a double is *either* takeout *or* alertable.
If you are doubling an artificial suit bid (excluding a non forcing short club or short diamond opening) or a no-trump bid then a double is *either* penalties *or* alertable.
Note that there are other doubles apart from takeout or penalties, eg showing something specific or lead-directing or general values, and these are all alertable.
Above 3NT you only alert lead directing doubles that do not ask for the suit doubled.If they have not played any boards, or fewer than half, then it is best to adjust every result to ave/ave, ie =/=.
If they have played half or more of the boards then their scores should be kept and every board they do not play scored as ave+ to their opponents, ave- to them, ie -/+ if they are N/S, +/- if they are E/W.
I am very interested in Julian’s reply but my experience suggests that most people play it one of three ways:
#1 Encouraging but not forcing
#2 Good suit, forcing for one round, so 3S could be passed
#3 Good suit, forcing to game
If you play any of those three ways you must pass with the given hand. But my view is that it is what I call a matter of partnership agreement.
I don’t think much of a penalty pass on the East hand. If partner has something like
x
AKJx
AJxx
Txxx
which looks like a perfect takeout double, 1Sx might just struggle home, and so might 4H! There is always a danger in looking at more than one hand for a bidding sequence. It is very difficult to avoid just choosing calls that work without realising they will not if the hand was different.
The basic point about this hand is that a takeout double with a doubleton in the unbid major is fraught with danger.It seems very sensible to me.
I think players often forget that bridge is a competition between two sides at the table to do better. You learn rules on how to bid from Bernard or Julian but these are merely based on other players’ experience and are not the laws of the game. Why do you open 3D when you have seven diamonds and eight points? Is it to reach your best contract? Not primarily. The main reason is to interfere with the opponents’ bidding.
If you interfere over Blackwood you run one very obvious risk: you may get doubled and go down an awful lot. But you may gain from taking away some of their room. There is another less obvious gain: many players agree to play something called DOPI over interference over Blackwood and I have discovered that there are two different ways of playing DOPI but everyone assumes their way is the only one, so they might miss a slam or bid one missing two aces.
Much of the modern style of defensive bidding, that is bidding when opponents open the bidding, is to increase interference, to compete or to sacrifice, not just to reach your own best contract.
———————Terminology: some players misuse the term ‘open the bidding’. The first person to call on any hand is the dealer, whether they pass or bid. The first person to bid, that is not to pass but to make a positive bid is the opener, ie they open the bidding.
