"Don't Think Twice" Responding to Takeout Doubles by Marti Ronemus

In 1962 Bob Dylan gave the worst possible advice to bridge players when he hit the charts with "Don't Think Twice." Nonsense. We've got to think at LEAST twice... maybe more than thrice.

Did you know that the number of decisions in a hand of bridge rivals the number in a chess game? Not only do we have multiple decisions, we've got the vagaries of a Pard to deal with. Which is the best and only sometimes the worst thing about bridge.

But I digress. Let's look at some situations where we need to think twice. Pard makes a Takeout Double and we need to respond. We need to show two aspects of our hand... shape and point count. Remember Pard is a) short in their suit, b) probably has four in any unbid major, c) has an opening-ish hand, and d) can tolerate any suit we bid.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ A 4
♥ K 9 5 4 3
♦ 8 7 5 4
♣ Q 10

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♦	Dbl	Pass
?

A: 2♥: Pard's very likely to have four Hearts (at least 3), so we've got our suit. What requires a second thought is how high we should go. One of the commonest errors made by emerging players is ONLY naming the suit. We would have to bid with zero points (passing is NOT an option!!), so we need to JUMP a level to tell Pard we've got 8/9-ish to 11-ish points. He will know whether to accept our invitation or not. His problem now, as we've limited our hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ A J 9 8 7
♥ K 4 3
♦ Q 2
♣ A 4 3

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♣	Dbl	2♣
?

A: 4♠: More experienced players might use other paths to contract, BUT!! Let's keep it clean and simple. Pard's got an opening-ish hand and we've game-going values. We know the suit we want, we know the level. Let's just get there.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 5 4
♥ A 10
♦ Q 9 4
♣ Q J 10 8 7 5

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♣	Dbl	Pass
?

A: Pass. This seldom happens but we want you to know under what conditions may you pass your Pard's Takeout Double. First, you simply MUST have three solid trump tricks IN YOUR HAND (as opposed to in your dreams). And you must have at least one outside trick. Finally, you can't have an obvious place to play of your own. Take a long look, because you won't often see it.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 4 3
♥ K 9 4
♦ 9 8 5 4 2
♣ J 4 3

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♦	Double	1♠
?

A: Pass: NOT because we have Diamonds. Remember, you need three tricks in the suit! But we are "off the hook" because of the intervening bid. We don't want to bid and we don't have to. Pard will know we have nothing... after all, we paid to play and we love action. He'll know we have no suit and are broke to boot. Now HE'll have to "think twice."

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ A Q 9 4
♥ 3 2
♦ Q 9 4
♣ 8 7 5 4

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♣	Double	1♥
?

A: 1♠: You are bidding freely because of the intervening bid. You don't have to JUMP to show your 8-ish to 11-ish points, you just have to bid. Pard will know you've got a little strength.

So now that we're in sync with thinking twice, let's tackle our hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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