cherdano, on 2013-August-24, 02:33, said:
It doesn't count because you continue to ignore the point I am making.
Maybe it's a language problem: you seem to think a "penalty double" is a double showing trump tricks, or whatever. I think a penalty double is a bid you make when you think the contract is going down.
If you're twisting my arm and making me play penalty doubles over a 4
♠ preempt then you'll endplay me into doubling with either kind of hand.
In the auction that you talked about initially, we were at the 3 level in an auction where we had found a fit, double can't be nebulous.
1
♠ P 2
♠ 3
♦
If you were to double here just because you have a good hand, like a balanced 18 count, or an 11 count that's 5-5 in the pointed suits, and partner bid 3
♠ (say he either has a stiff diamond or a 4th spade), you simply haven't shown your hand and don't know whether or not to bid 4. Furthermore at RvsW if partner has a 9 count with a doubleton diamond he'd gladly pass the double if he thinks it's based on diamonds (should get at least 300 and no game to recover), but if you just have a big balanced hand, then you may well fail to take the tricks to recover your game. So yes, I claim that double here needs to be specific, if I hit 3
♦ when I have diamonds, then I have to live with 3
♥ as a game try when I have some other kind of good hand.