Takeout doubles by Passed Hand

Takeout Doubles By Passed Hands

Passed Hands Can Bid. Often, as opener or second hand, you have 10 - 11 points, but no five card suit to bid. Your partner can have a similar hand. If the opponents bid only up to 2 © and you have 4ª cards, what should you do? Double.

The Passed Hand Double. This is one of our favorite bids, and one which has won us many matchpoints. It's a balancing call, in which a hand which has already passed doubles the opponents as they bid. It occurs only at low levels, and can't be a penalty double.

N              E          S          W

P         1¨     P        1©

            Dbl         . . .    Not for penalty -- for the black suits.

                    1§       P      1©       P

        1NT     P      P         Dbl   Spades and Diamonds by West.

West'll need to have 4 Spades and at least three Diamonds for this call. With 5 or more Spades, bid them on the first round.

1§       1©     P         2©

                  P         P       Dbl           P

                    !?!?

Q: Why didn't South Negative double in the first round?

A: Because he is very weak, but has Spades and some Diamonds. (Maybe he should investigate the Weak Jump Shift convention.)

Don't Let Them Steal a Contract. We make this bid a lot, even though it implies or shows our distribution to our opponents. But remember they are trying to buy the contract for a low bid, and you must not let that happen. Failure to double by a passed hand is important too, as it implies the passed hand may have defensive strength.

Example Passed Hand Doubles

N         E              S          W

                   P      1NT      P       P

             Dbl       . . .    Almost an automatic, as West wants to pass 1NT.

                  P      1©        P        2©

             Dbl      . . . 4 Spades and . . . what?

If E/W lets South bid Spades, they are in trouble, so East may bid 3© even though he would have preferred to pass 2©. Fun!

The Reason to Double. Often, the hand following the doubler bids again, even though they didn't want too, because it prevents doubler's side from finding a nice major suit fit - or at least they think this is going to happen, whether or not it's true.

N         E              S          W

P      1¨       P        1©

             P       2¨      Dbl     2©

If West was going to bid 2©, nothing is lost by South's double. If West wanted to Pass, E/W may have just 'taken the push'. East may have a problem now -- holding one heart -- and may go to 3¨, one more than he wanted to bid. That's the whole idea of the double.