Penalty doubles are an integral part of all forms of bridge, especially Duplicate Pairs. Not only do they generate some very large scores, they also play an important role in the partscore battle.
Wielding the Axe
If you do not learn to double part-score contracts, your opponents will get away with over-bidding when non-vulnerable:
a score of +100 for getting them two down will be worse than +110 or +140 for making your contract; if you double
them, you will collect a healthy +300!
When they are vulnerable, you can take it a step further: +100 for one down is often not enough but, had you doubled,
+200 would get you a top score.
When to Make a Penalty Double
There will be times when you get muddled up and are doubled, losing 1100 points! It is important that you are able to repay these compliments to your opponents. Doubling for penalties is not easy –one learns from experience.
To start off with, most players would improve their results if they doubled three times as often as they do now – and perhaps even more often! A good player will not mind the opponents making their contract every now and then, for although you get a bottom on one board out of ten, the other nine times your double will get you a top.
There are three basic types of penalty double we shall look at:
(1) Doubling No-trumps
(2) Doubling Part-scores
(3) Doubling Sacrifices
Finally, we shall consider bidding in the fourth seat. We looked at take-out doubles in the…Click Here to continue reading