The Negative Double - Audrey Grant's Better Bridge

1 BB14 BETT ERVOL. 12, NO. 6 BRIDGEJULY/AUGUST2008 This series is based on GrantStandard, a set of conventions andagreements that are in popular usetoday, such as 15-17 1NT openings,five -car d majors, and weak two-bids. A summary chart of GrantStand ard and the correspondingconvention card can be found atwww .AudreyGrant .com. The sitealso has Grant Basic, a simple r setof r articles in thi s se ri esappeared in the Bridge Bulletin andcan also be found under Articles atwww.

2 N partner opens one-of-a-suit and the next playeroverc alls, i t takes awaysome bidding room. In exchange,we get three new opt ions: Pas sing with 6 or more points Cuebidding the opponent s suit Doub lingWe discussed the first two choicesin the last i ssue. Let s focus on thethird option, responde r s onder s DoubleAt one time, responder s Double ofan opponent s overcall was t re ated asa penalty Double . At a low level,how ever, responder rarely wants todouble an opponent s overcal l forpena lty.

3 So i n the 1950s, Al Roth, inhis partnership with Tobias St one,introduced the concept of using alow-level Double by r esponder fortakeout r at her than pe nalty. This was initia lly cal led S putnik,afte r the Russian Satellit e launchedin 1957. Today, it is m or e co mmo nlykno wn as the neg ative Double :With this hand, wewould have r esponded1 if our right-hand-opponent had passed,but the 1 overca ll takesaw ay that possibilit y. We don t haveenoug h strength to bid a new suit atthe two level, and the hand is notsu itable for 1NT with no stopper insp ades.

4 Howe ver, we do want tocompete for the neg ative Double is the perfectso lution. We are showing supportfor the unbid suits, hea rt s and clubs,and at least 6- 10 points enoughto compete to the two level oppositepa rtner s o pening for the Unbid SuitsIdea lly, r esponder should have four-card support for both unbid suits. With this hand, we dmake a Negative doubleof the 1 ov ercall. Wedo n t need good spadesfor this call . Any foursp ades will do. Aft er al l, we wouldha ve res ponded 1 if East hadpassed.

5 We want t o look for a 4 4spade fit. We re also happy if partnerbids practice, resp onder won t alwayshave the perfect hand , bu t re spo ndersho uld have f our- card support for anunbid major suit , and support for anunbid minor suit or something elseto bid if opener bids the minor this han d w edon t have support forclubs, but we can st illmak e a nega tive do partner bids clubs,expecting us to have support for thatsuit, we can return to diamonds, andthe partnership will be in a suitabletrump fit.

6 Here we don t havesupport for either clu bsor diamonds, but wecan stil l Double . Ifpartner bids 2 , forexample, we are will ing t o bid e we can t affo rdto Double because wedon t have support forthe unbid major, we were to Double ,partner might j ump to game inspad es, and we d hav e no safe landingspot after that . We ll have to settlefor some other call, such as 2 ,1NT , or inference, if r esponder bids asuit over an opponent s overcall, ittends to show a five-card or longersuit.

7 With only a four-card suit,responder would li kely have made anega tive this hand wewould bid 1 ov er the1 overca ll. If we wereto make a negativedo uble, o pen er wo uldbi d spad es only with a four-card op ener has three spades, we wouldmiss our 5 3 fit in the major r esponse of 1 aft er an o verca ll doesn tguaranteefive or morespades. With thi s handwe d be poorly placedif we doubled and partne r bid clubs,expecting us to have support. Ourbest choice it to bid 1 , even ifpartner might assume we have afive-card sui s St an da rd?

8 Th e Negative Dou bleby Da vid L indop Q 8 7 4 3 9 5 J 7 A 8 6 2 NEGATIVEDOU BLEAfte r opener bids one-of-a-suitand the next player overc alls in asuit, r esponder s dou ble shows: Support for the unbid suits. Eno ugh strength to 1 ?NW ESRESPONDEROPEN ER 9 3 2 K Q 6 3 7 5 Q J 7 4 OVERCALLER Q 4 9 6 4 3 J 7 4 A Q 6 3 K J 8 2 J 7 2 Q 8 7 5 Q 3 A K J 2 8 7 6 3 9 7 8 6 51 1 ?NW ESRESPONDEROPEN EROVERCALLER 8 7 6 3 9 5 8 4 2 A K 6 2 Q J 6 3 A 10 8 2 Q 4 J 6 2BB15 BETT ERVOL. 12, NO. 6 BRIDGEJULY/AUGUST2008 The LevelThe Standard American Yello w Card(SAYC), develo ped b y the AC BLand widely used in club games andon the Internet, sta tes tha t negativedoubles only apply when right-handopponent make s an overcall up t oand i ncluding 2.

9 I f the overcall isat a higher level, responder s doubleis for practice, most players assumeresponder s Double is for takeout ateven higher levels. In Grant Standard, Negative Double s apply after overcallsup to 4 . It s a goo d idea to c heckthe level with y our hand is perfec tfor a Negative doubleafte r Eas t mak es a p re-emptive jump overcallof 3 . We wa nt to compete and h avesupport for the unbid suits .However, if t he partnership hasagreed to use Negative doubles onlythrough 2 , res ponder i s fa ced wit han un comfortabl e choice.

10 A doublewould be for penal ty, and thatwould be risky with t wo low heart bid of 4 would be forcing andmight get the partne rship too highor t o the wrong contract. Passwould be ve ry t im id, but there i s noclear Streng thTo make a Negative Double , respondermust ha ve a t least enough strengt hto co mpete at the appropriate does app ropr iate mean? Thatcan be challenging. Suppose theauction begins:If responder makes a negativedouble showing support for spadesand clubs, opener can bid spades atthe two level, 2 , but would have togo to the t hr ee le vel to bid clubs,3.