Forum Question 12 – Bidding query over double

Forum Question 12 - Bidding query over double

This question was asked to: Julian Pottage

Question

Hi Julian, i had a good 17pt hand with five good spades and after my right hand opponent opened one club, I decided to double and then bid spades, west passed and my partner bid one spade and east also passed. I decided to bid three spades to show my strength but should I had just bid two?

Answer

The rule here is to imagine that you had opened the bidding and your partner had responded and then raise to one level lower than you would have done. So you would need a 4-loser hand to go all the way to 4S, a 5-loser hand to jump to 3S and a 6-loser hand to give a simple raise to 2S. 17 points with five spades sounds a bit good for a simple raise; your jump to 3S sounds about right.

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