Maximal Doubles

 

In a competitive auction at the three-level there are certain situations where a Double may be used as a game-try.  Please read on.

 

14th February, 2006         Board 6      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

We don’t expect Partner to have a particularly good hand for his 2♠ bid, he’s just raising our implied Spades, he might have as little as Axxx in Spades and nothing else.  Therefore, we would say that 4♠ here would be a bit of an overbid.  How about 3♠ instead?  Definitely not, that would be a serious underbid, it’s more competitive than constructive, the sort of bid we might make if we had a singleton in Hearts and about an Ace or a King less.

 

If we had to choose between 3♠ and 4♠ we would try 4♠, but there is an alternative, namely an invitational 3½ Spades bid.  Yes, if you play Maximal Doubles that is essentially what the Double means.  The basic elements of a Maximal Double situation are:

-         They have bid and raised their suit to the 3-level

-         We have bid and raised our suit

-         Our suit outranks their suit by one (Spades vs Hearts or Hearts vs Diamonds)

 

Yes, it’s true that we have not explicitly bid and raised Spades, but the Takeout Double counts as the first mention of the suit.  So now, over 3♥ our Double is Maximal … Partner will bid 3♠ or 4♠ depending on how much he likes his hand.

 

 

11th April, 2007               Board 26      Dealer East       Both Vul

 

 

This problem gets us into Maximal Doubles, so by way of introduction, let’s consider this auction:

                        East     South   West    North

                        1♥        2♣       2♥        3♣

                        ??

If we want to compete in Hearts we’ll just bid 3♥ here.  But, if we want to make a game try in this situation we can bid 3♦.  Obviously, we don’t want to play in Diamonds, we have already agreed Hearts, our 3♦ is simply the only available way of inviting game and says nothing whatsoever about Diamonds.

 

OK, back to the actual auction.  Here, we can bid 3♥ competitively (usually showing an extra trump but not extra values), or we can … er, yes, what can we do?  The general treatment in the tournament world is for Double here to me “Maximal”, which is to say “invitational to game”.  We use the Double whenever we don’t have an intervening game try suit available.

 

Having said all that, is the East hand even worth a game try?  Maybe, maybe not, it’s somewhat marginal at matchpoints.

 

 

20th June, 2007                 Board 31      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

Do you play Maximal Doubles?  If so, here is a classic situation.  We are bidding Spades (Partner’s 2♥ showed support and values), they are bidding Hearts.  In this situation, playing Maximal Doubles, we can compete with 3♠ (typically a weakish hand with an extra trump or some distribution), or we can Double.  The message from that Double is “Can you bid game, Partner?”  If those are our methods then we’d go for the Double, we don’t have much extra in terms of HCP’s but we do have a most attractive looking hand.  And, if a Maximal Double is not part of our arsenal?  Difficult question, we’d be seriously tempted to boot out 4♠.

 

 

19th September, 2007       Board 8      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

Here we might be tempted to try 4♥ based on our Diamond shortness and double fit.  But let us suppose that we decide that our hand is not quite good enough.  What are the alternatives?  In standard methods, the only choice would be 3♥, leaving us with no way of distinguishing between a merely competitive Heart raise and an invitational Heart raise.  Enter the Maximal Double, which allows us to bid 3♥ if we are just competing, and Double if we want to invite game.

 

When does the Maximal Double apply?  The basic conditions are:

-         We have agreed a major

-         They have competed to one below our suit (Diamonds against our Hearts, or Hearts against our Spades)

If that is the situation, then we Double to make a game try.

 

Why only when their last bid was one rank below our own suit?  Well, if they bid 3♦, say, and our suit is Spades, then we have that intervening 3♥ bid available as a game try and don’t need a Maximal Double game try.

 

 

 

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