[jillybean]

2♣ (bid) ?

I have always played DOPV. It is a very rare sequence and I have not bothered about it but now that I'm playing more, against players who do get into the strong auctions,
it has come up a couple of times.

Since there is no space used, it appears to be just a simple showing bid. Is Zero, zero controls or zero HCP?
How about other sequences? What is current Expert Standard?

thanks

[mike777]

I learned
Double=deny ace or King, nongf.

Pass=ace or King, gf

Suit bid natural, gf, however can just be an ok quality suit. Best to get your long suit in the auction if possible..

There is a bit more to it however this handles the vast majority..

[jillybean]

mike777, on 2026-May-06, 16:22, said:

I learned
Double=deny ace or King, nongf.

Pass=ace or King, gf

Suit bid natural, gf, however can just be an ok quality suit. Best to get your long suit in the auction if possible..

There is a bit more to it however this handles the vast majority..

Yes, other than natural suit, this is how I play it. I'm wondering what more there is, or alternatives.

[Stephen Tu]

I hate this treatment. I don't see how opener can figure out when to pass the double if responder can be any shape. And super often opener is the one with a normal takeout double, holding say 22-24 with small doubleton or Ax in opps suit, and now you have taken partner's most descriptive bid. Now what? If opener now wants to bid a suit how do you distinguish between a bal hand that didn't want to pass vs a real 5 usually 6+ suit?

To me, I'd much rather pass with nothing like we do in all other competitive situations vs preempts. Bids to me should roughly what you would do imagining partner had opened 2nt 22+.

[DavidKok]

I play X = takeout, bid = natural and gf, pass = nothing to say (may still have some values and no good bid).

[mikeh]

I played double as denying a control for maybe 30 years and over here it’s pretty much standard. Two years ago my main partnership reversed so that pass denies a control.

Since both 2C and an overcall are rare, and I don’t play a lot of bridge, I don’t have any real basis for arguing that one method is better than the other. Both are low frequency. Plus I don’t see how a positive double helps opener pass for penalty very often: as in, so far, it hasn’t happened

[pescetom]

DavidKok, on 2026-May-06, 23:02, said:

I play X = takeout, bid = natural and gf, pass = nothing to say (may still have some values and no good bid).

You could assume that with a pickup partner in Italy.