What do you do when 1NT (12-14) is doubled?

This paper is partly based on an excellent booklet written by David Price in the Bridge Plus series (price £3.50) which may still be in print.  But I have made several modifications and improvements.  When you open 1NT with only 13 points, give or take a Jack, you are taking a risk.  If partner holds his usual rubbish you are destined for a negative score.

The priorities when 1NT is doubled are:

1. To obtain a plus score or minimise your loss
2. To avoid silly results
3. To punish the opponents and pressurise them when possible

First, let’s consider what to do in the “direct” position – the double comes from the left of the opener.

If responder has a good hand (9 or more points) you expect to make a plus score.  Your priority is to punish the opponents while avoiding a silly result.

With a weaker hand (6-8 points) you may either make a plus score or a small minus – it depends on how the hands fit.  Your priority is to minimise the possible minus score while avoiding a silly result.

Most often you will hold 0-5 points [your partner has around 13 and the opponent who doubled 16 or more so there are probably only 5-11 points between you and the other opponent].  Now you must minimise the minus score.  This is, paradoxically, a situation in which you can put most pressure on the opponents.

The other factor is the distribution of your hand.  This is either balanced (4-3-3-3 or 4-4-3-2), semi-balanced (5-3-3-2) or unbalanced (any other distribution).

The following conventional approach is recommended:

• Stayman, transfers and other conventional bids no longer apply
• Redouble is conventional, not to play
• 1NT doubled will never be the final outcome
• If you pass your partner must either bid a suit or redouble

The reasons for doing away with transfers is that they take up a lot of space.  2§ or 2¨ may be your safest spot but are not available.  With 4-4 in the majors there are other ways to reach a fit.  And, although there is some advantage in having the “strong” hand play in 2© or 2ª that does not justify the loss of two important natural bids.

1. First, with a weak hand and a five card (or longer) suit you bid it so 2§, 2¨, 2© and 2ª are natural and weak to play.

2. With a weak balanced hand with two four card suits (4-4-3-2) the key to the system is responder’s holding in spades.  With a four card spade suit you redouble.  With any two suits not including spades you pass.  If you have a poor five card suit and a fair four card suit you may treat your hand as 4-4.

3. With a weak 4-3-3-3 hand you may need to “take a view”.

4. With a strong balanced hand you pass and hope partner redoubles (see later).

5. With a game forcing hand (yes these do occur from time to time, especially if the doubler has a long strong suit and an outside ace) you bid a conventional 2NT.

6. With a seven card suit (or six at favourable vulnerability) you bid 3§, 3¨, 3© or 3ª which is pre-emptive and to play.

7. Any game bid is natural and to play.

With an unbalanced, strong hand it is very dangerous to play 1NT redoubled – the doubler may reel off six tricks in a suit and an ace for a silly result (remember the second priority.  This is an example for responder:

ªK Q 10 5 3; ©K J 9 3; ¨void; §K J 10 9

This was a real life hand and was played in 1NT redoubled.  Partner had:

ªA 9 8 7 2; ©A Q 7; ¨J 3 2; §Q 3

The defence made the first seven tricks when 6ª was laydown.

With such a hand you should bid 2NT game forcing.  Partner will bid his four card suits upwards until a fit is found.  Of course you may miss a juicy penalty if partner has the diamonds well held and no fit but avoiding a silly result is far more important than punishing the opponents.

So what do you do with a weak 4-3-3-3- hand?  If the four card suit has good texture you may decide to treat it as a five card suit and hope partner has not got a small doubleton.  So with:

ª5 4 3; ©5 4 3; ¨5 4 3; §K J 10 9 bid 2§ and shut your eyes.  You may not be doubled and at least you will make two trump tricks.

But with a weak suit you should redouble if the suit is spades and hope partner also has four or pass with any other four card suit.  In the latter case you will act as if you had two four card suits.

So that covers the responder’s actions.  How should opener react?

1.            If responder has bid a suit opener must pass – it will be a five card suit or longer.

2.            If responder has passed showing either a strong balanced hand or a weak hand with two suits not including spades and the RHO has also passed opener should redouble unless he has a good five card suit.  Opener must never pass.

If opener redoubles responder will either pass, hoping to make it, or bid four card suits upwards.  Since responder is known not to have four spades opener will pass the responder’s bid unless he has a doubleton in which case he will look for at least a 4-3 fit.

3.            If responder has redoubled, showing a weak hand with two four card suits, one of which is spades, opener will bid 2ª holding four.  Otherwise he rebids as follows:

• 2§ with at least three clubs.  If that is responder’s other suit it will be at least a 4-3 fit, not great but probably at least as good as 1NT doubled.
• 2¨ with a doubleton club and therefore eight cards in the red suits
• 2© with a fair five card heart suit (for these purposes that is one with two honours including ©J and ©10, probably not with two top honours)

That is fairly intuitive – only the 2§ bid may need thinking about.

Responder’s next bid will depend on opener’s rebid and his holding. 

• Over 2§ responder passes with four clubs in the certainty of at least a seven card fit.  Otherwise he bids his four card red suit and opener will either pass or correct to 2ª with a doubleton in the red suit.
• Over 2¨ he passes with four diamonds in the likelihood of an eight card fit.  With four hearts he bids 2© and with neither he bids 2ª (opener must have 3 as he has only two clubs).

With 4-4-4-1 hands the recommended approach is to ignore the weakest four card suit and treat as 4-4-3-2.  You might still find be lucky and a fit in the weakest suit in some circumstances.

That is a lot of rules to remember.  If, like me, you learn from examples you will appreciate some actual bidding sequences.  I have not made up hands to go with them as it is easy to create examples which suit any system.  In practice, if you improve the contract 60% of the time, make it worse 30% and have a similar result 10% your system has worked.

First with a double in the direct position (West - second hand).  The bidding sequence is shown up to the point at which North-South will stop bidding whatever the opponents do.

So have we improved the contract by wriggling in each of the above cases?

1. A 4-4 fit must be better than 1NT doubled
2. If opener has four hearts a 4-4 fit has been located, otherwise it is a 4-3 fit which is probably no better than 1NT.
3. Almost certainly 3ª is the same result as without playing a wriggle.  But it is clear as a bell what responder has.
4. If opener has spades and the “wrong” red suit the result will be a 4-3 fit, otherwise the 4-4 fit will be identified.  If opener does not have spades there must be a 4-4 fit.
5. A sensible contract has been reached which is always a good result.
6. Ditto
7. Top or bottom!
8. Probably the obvious result
9. If opener had five spades and a red suit misfit he would have bid 2ª so, unless he is 3-3-5-2 a 4-4 fit has been reached
10. A 4-4 (or possibly 5-4) fit so a good result
11. normal
12. At least a 5-2 fit has been found.

When the double is from fourth position (East)

All these bids assume that the double is in the position over the opener which is the commonest case.  But if it is from under the opener there are fewer options.

The recommended approach here is for opener to pass with 4-3-3-3, pass or bid with 5-3-3-2 (the decision will depend on the suit quality etc.) and redouble with 4-4-3-2.

If opener has passed

Responder’s redouble is to play with 9+ points.  With 6-8 points and 4-3-3-3 he can pass hoping for some luck.  Since opener’s points are sitting over the doubler they may be promoted.  Remember that the doubler’s partner may not make the best lead.

With two non-touching suits responder bids the lower ranking.

With two touching suits you bid the suit below them (with clubs and diamonds you bid clubs).  If that gets doubled you redouble (a version of Koch-Werner) to show the two higher suits and partner will rescue.

Of course responder might have a five card minor suit and will bid it.  Partner may then “correct” with a doubleton and you are fixed!  But even then a 4-3 fit may be no worse.

That underlines a point.  Once 1NT is doubled you cannot always expect to improve the contract.  Sometimes there is nowhere to go.  But experience shows that more than 60% of the time there is a better spot.

Now for some hands where responder (North) passes and East doubles

So in which of the above cases is the contract improved?

1. If responder has five clubs the best contract may be 2§.  That should be better than 1NT but the final contract of 2¨ may be at least as good, even with a 5-2 fit.
2. If responder is 4-4 in the majors and opener has 4 diamonds and a four card major this could be a silly contract but if doubled the 4-4 major fit will be discovered when responder redoubles.  If responder has four diamonds they have found a 4-4 fit.
3. If responder has five clubs they have missed the best contract in a 5-2 club fit and will play in a 4-3 fit.  Otherwise they will find the 4-4 fit.
4. Here it is possible that the best contract is 1NT doubled and possibly redoubled but the importance of avoiding silly results is higher than punishing the opponents.  The only case where it will lead to a bad result is if responder is 4-4-1-4.
5. The 4-3 fit may play fairly well with a diamond ruff in opener’s hand.  It is quite likely that 2§ was the best contract if responder is 2-4-4-3 or even 1-4-4-4 but both 2§ and 2© are probably better than 1NT doubled.

Ironically, you are more likely to get a bad result if the double comes from fourth position.  Compulsive doublers will get in the act with all sorts of hands in fourth position and if they find their partner with a scattering of points over the opener may well score a good result.  But if they don’t you should at least be on firm ground as the only time opener takes out “in front of” responder is when he has a fair five card suit.