[zg1984]

In a recent scenario I was sitting North.

East opened 1 Heart
My partner, South, doubled
West bid 4 Hearts

I was sitting with four hearts to the ACE and 11 HCP.
I doubled the 4H bid.

East Passed
My partner bid 4S and went down 2.

My partner felt that I should have either bid my best suit or passed.
I disagreed, because of the intervening 4H bid by West.

Some comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

What was your full hand ?
( 1H ) - X - ( 4H ) - X = minors [ if you had Spades, you would have bid them since partner ostensibly has shown them ]

[ahydra]

Depends on your agreements. For most new partnerships this would be penalties (4NT for takeout), so your double seems fine. Some would play double as minors as TWO4BRIDGE suggested.

In absence of any agreement, "standard" is penalty doubles at the 3-level and higher (at least in England).

ahydra

[zg1984]

TWO4BRIDGE: I do not remember the exact hand, but I did have 4 hearts to the ACE and 2 spades with no honors. As I am always learning new things, I not did take a double of 1H to indicate spades, from my partner. Should I have?

ahydra: Thanks, that is what I told my partner.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

zg1984, on 2012-January-08, 16:15, said:

TWO4BRIDGE: I do not remember the exact hand, but I did have 4 hearts to the ACE and 2 spades with no honors. As I am always learning new things, I not did take a double of 1H to indicate spades, from my partner. Should I have?

ahydra: Thanks, that is what I told my partner.

Your partner either had a (1) typical T/O DBL with at least 3 cards spades in the unbid suits ( but usually includes 4 cards spades ) OR (2) the strong-DBL ( usually with a good 5+ suit ).
Your DBL, agreed whether penalty or showing the minors, does NOT show Spades. Your partner should not have bid 4S UNLESS he had the "strong-DBL" with a good 5+ Spade suit.

[Zelandakh]

As others have said this is really just a matter of agreements. Beginners are often taught to play negative (take-out) doubles up to 2♠ and penalty doubles above this. This is a terrible agreement and contributed to beginners often feeling out of their depth against aggressive preemption by opponents. Intermediate players often extend negative doubles up to 3♠. This is alot better but still leaves you struggling with many hands at the 4 level. If you had either of these agreements then your double was a penalty suggestion.

After finding out how good negative doubles are at the 3 level many intermediates then read a couple of articles and decide to play negative doubles all the way to 7♠. This is quite playable and appears on many expert cards but tends to require alot more judgement than most intermediate level players have. If you were to have this agreement then your double would be suggesting playing in 5 of a minor.

Finally, having tried the extremes some players settle on something in the middle. Negative doubles to 4♦ were popular for a while; to 4♥ probably the most common choice now for those that do not use the 7♠ method from the previous paragraph. If your agreed negative double level were 4♥ then double would have a meaning similar to before - suggesting 5 of a minor.

On BBO it is probably a good idea to include a line "negX thru 3S" (or whatever level you feel comfortable with) in your profile so that these decisions are a little easier to make for your partners. If your partner's card has a different level then you might want to discuss it.

[phil_20686]

I dont like calling these "negative doubles" as it doesnt really feel like one to me. I call them "action doubles" and say they show a good hand with nowhere to go. Its still kind of expected for partner to pull it with extreme shape, like if decided to double on a weakish 4-0-6-3 type hand, but you are expecting him to pass with "normal" t/o doubles.

[nigel_k]

Regardless of your general agreement about 'negative doubles', after they raise the double should almost never be pure penalty and the doubler's partner should pull with an unbalanced hand. In your example with 11 HCP and four cards in their suit I would just pass. Maybe partner doubles again or maybe you can't make game and in any case this hand type will not be that common compared to the ones with nothing much in their suit but some values and no obvious bid.