Responsive Doubles
Vulnerable versus not at IMP’s I pick up 
J 10 
Q 9 8 3 
K J 10 7 
Q J 10.
RHO passes and so do you. LHO, third seat at favorable, opens 2. Partner doubles and RHO raises to 3.
What is your call? How many hearts do you promise with a double or if you bid the suit?
Look here for our “solution”.
I like playing responsive doubles as showing two places to play. Thus this hand is a clear, albeit minimum, responsive double, and when pard bids 4C, I have an easy 4D bid, which partner will pass.
May 11, 2007 Mark Kinzer
It’s not often reasonable players disagree by *four* on the number of hearts promised by a call, but that’s the case here. (Jeff suggests a double shows four hearts.) I promise more spades (one) than hearts (ZERO) for a double here. I would double with an xxx=0=5=5 max pass, for instance…I can correct 4H to 4NT, asking partner to bid his better minor, which is where we were getting if I took a call right away, but with the added possibilities of getting to 3NT or 3SX. (Sometimes the opps are on a 5-2 fit and partner can pass for penalties.) This may be an uncommon hand-type, but 2=2=4=5 and 2=2=5=4 and 2=3=4=4 are not–indeed those are important shapes here since they are shapes with which one might well have passed a 12 count. In those cases, it’s hard to imagine any call other than double unless the spade holding is a full stopper.
For me, a double shows 0 to 4 hearts and 1 or more spades (though I have trouble imagining wanting to do something other than pass or bid a long suit if I have 4 spades). A 4H bid shows a 5 hearts or a *good* four and might be tempting if you reversed my red suits, but certainly not on this hand. The real question for the doublers with the hand in question is what you would do over 4D from partner. I would bid 4H, planning to correct 5C to 5D, even though the hand is minimum. Once one’s side has elected not to defend, I think it makes little sense to miss out on 4H on double red suit fits.
By the way, I might pass 3S if I were not a passed hand, but partner’s double needs to be sounder here, since I am already limited, so doubling 3S becomes clear.
Christopher
August 9, 2007 Christopher Monsour