This Week in Bridge
(642) Advancing Partner’s Takeout Double
©AiB Robert S. Todd
Level: 5 of 10 robert@advinbridge.com
General Discussion
How to respond to a takeout double is an important topic to discuss with your partner, but a discussion that most partnerships forget to have for many years. The question that you need to ask partner is “What do my bids mean in response to your takeout double?”
First, let’s talk about what you should expect from partner’s takeout double. Partner should have about an opening bid and at least 3-card support for all three of the other suits. If that is partner’s minimum possible hand, we need to figure out how high our side wants to get and what our fit is likely to be. Here is how we do it!
Showing Your Values
When partner makes a takeout double the first thing that we need to do is show partner our longest suit. We do so by bidding it! The second piece of information that we want to communicate to partner is the strength of our hand.
We do this by:
bidding cheaply with a bad hand (0 to 8 pts),
jumping with a decent hand (good 8 to 11 pts), and
cuebidding the opponents’ suit with an opening hand (12+ pts).
Note: When you (as Advancer) are 4333 with 4-cards in the Opener’s suit and fewer than 8 pts, you have a real problem. The answer is that you bid your cheapest 3-card suit (at the cheapest level possible.)
Meanings of Advancer’s Bids
Example 1
Opener Interferer Responder Advancer
1♣ X P __?
1♦ 4+c♦, 0 to 8- pts
1♥ 4+c♥, 0 to 8- pts
1♠ 4+c♠, 0 to 8- pts
1NT 8 to 11 pts, ♣ stopper
2♣ Cuebid, 12+ pts, Game Forcing
2♦ 4+c♦, 8 to 11 pts
2♥ 4+c♥, 8 to 11 pts
2♠ 4+c♠, 8 to 11 pts
2NT 12-13 pts, ♣ stopper
3NT 14 pts, ♣ stopper
Notice that jumps do not show additional length in a suit (they can still be a 4-card suit.) Jumps show values. We figure out if we have a 5-3 or 4-4 fit after we figure out how high we should bid based on our values. This is a bit of a different approach than when we open the bidding. When we open the bidding, we first find out fit and then figure out how high to bid. In this doubling situation, we show our values first and figure out our fit (or size of our fit) next.
How Does Interferer (Doubler) Show Extra Values?
When the Interferer wants to show extra values, he has a couple of options. The first is to raise partner’s bid (no matter if it is a jump or not.) This raise promises that our side has a fit. Since Advancer has only promised 4-cards in the suit he bid, then Interferer’s raise of Advancer’s bid shows 4-cards in that suit as well.
Example 2
Opener Interferer Responder Advancer
1♣ X P 1♠
P 2♠
This shows extra values and 4-card ♠.
The next question is how does Interferer show extra values with only 3-card support for Advancer’s suit? To do this, we cuebid the opponents’ suit, which asks Advancer to tell us more about his hand. By inference, Interferer must have extra values and only 3-card support (because he didn’t raise Advancer’s suit.)
Example 3
Opener Interferer Responder Advancer
1♣ X P 1♠
P 2♣
This shows extra values and usually 3-card ♠.
What if the Opponents Keep Bidding?
If the Opener rebids his suit, the Interferer has a new call available to him -- that call is another double. This second takeout double will take the place of the cuebid in our previous example.
Example 4
Opener Interferer Responder Advancer
1♣ X P 1♠
2♣ X
This shows extra values and usually only 3-card ♠. With extra values and 4-card ♠ then Interferer would just raise to 2♠.
Conclusion
I hope that this helps you and your partner communicate better when you make takeout doubles. Discuss these ideas with your partner and you will do much better in these competitive auctions. Make sure that you remember to fully describe your hand in these auction, that way partner can help make a decision about what to do next.