Bridge
Dear Mr. Wolff: I held “5-4, “J-10-5-2, “Q-10-8-6, “K-5-3 and heard my partner double one club and the next hand join in with one spade. Was it right for me to double this for takeout, or should I have passed? I would tell you what happened, except that my partner has sworn me to secrecy – but it was not pretty! — Chain Saw Massacre, Houston, Texas
Answer: Your double here should have been for penalties, not takeout, since spades was not an agreed suit. (Contrast what happens if your RHO had raised clubs, when double would be takeout.) You should have bid two hearts over one spade; your hand is just worth action, and it is better to bid now rather than later.
Dear Mr. Wolff: Is it ever right to double a minor suit with considerably less than an opening bid, but the compensation of holding both majors? The problem I have with overcalling in one major is that it almost denies real length in the other major, does it not? — Double Trouble, Bellevue
Answer: The modern tendencies are to make a Michaels Cue-Bid with a weak hand and 5-5 in both majors or better. But overcalling with 4-5 or 5-4 in the majors and opening values is perfectly satisfactory. You often get a second chance to bid the other suit or to double for takeout at your next turn.
Dear Mr. Wolff: Is it ever right to double a one-level opening bid with a strong one-suited hand? Or should you bid the suit, then act again later? — Flat Tire, Great Falls
Answer: If your hand is so strong that you are seriously worried about missing game facing a five- or six-count, doubling first may be appropriate. But these days, overcalls are taken far more seriously than they once were – when they seemed to be confessions of weakness rather than announcements of potentially strong hands. Particularly when the opponents have the boss suit, spades, I’d recommend overcalling, not doubling.
Dear Mr. Wolff: Is there a best method of discarding? A lot of the players at my club play odd-even discards, but I have not quite fathomed what that means! — Pretty as a Pitcher, Grenada, Miss.
Answer: All methods of discarding are fundamentally equivalent. But I find where most inexperienced players err is by throwing high cards away when either they can’t afford the discard or they need to keep that discard to win a subsequent trick. Discard what you do not want and keep what you do — that is is my watchword!
In odd-even discards, odd cards encourage the suit you have thrown and even cards discourage it, with some suit-preference overtones.
Dear Mr. Wolff: I held “10-4, “Q-J-5-2, “K-10-8-6, “Q-5-3 and responded one heart to one club. The next hand overcalled one spade, and my partner bid two spades. Was that a heart raise, a request for me to bid no-trump with a spade stop, or just a general force? — Muddled Through, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Answer: Normally, the two-spade call should set up a game-force and ask you to make a natural and descriptive call, but not always with support for you. Here, with no spade stop, your natural choice seems to be to make the economical call of raising to three clubs to find out why partner set up a force.