[PeterAlan]

EBU deals with the treatment of weaker off-shape take-out doubles in paragraph 4D4 of Orange Book 2010, under the general heading of "Matters of Style":

Orange Book 4D4 said:

If a partnership agrees to make take-out doubles of suit bids on almost all hands with opening bid values (not just on hands that are short in the opponent’s suit or have substantial extra values) then this should be disclosed on the system card. Similarly the practice of doubling for take-out on unusually weak hands should be disclosed on the convention card.

The recent Portland Pairs thread had many posters arguing for a very nuanced view of what constituted an unalertable take-out double: a crude summary would be that if a double is ostensibly take-out by agreement (and might well technically fulfill the definition in OB 4H6), nevertheless if it is not a "pure" take-out double, then it should be alerted (for example, in that case, because it might, and in fact did, have competitive under/over-tones).

Now in club bridge there are a number of pairs who play "t/o" doubles in the way described in the first sentence of OB 4D4. A recent example (with no support for the other major) was:

---

(N/S in this example are a regular, long-established partnership who may be assumed to have a full understanding of each other's bidding style. Let's not, however, get into what might or might not be good bridge.)

Do you consider disclosure on the system card to be sufficient (assuming it is there, which is often not the case), or do you consider that the double should be alerted as well?

PeterAlan

[mjj29]

PeterAlan, on 2011-May-06, 06:36, said:

EBU deals with the treatment of weaker off-shape take-out doubles in paragraph 4D4 of Orange Book 2010, under the general heading of "Matters of Style":


The recent Portland Pairs thread had many posters arguing for a very nuanced view of what constituted an unalertable take-out double: a crude summary would be that if a double is ostensibly take-out by agreement (and might well technically fulfill the definition in OB 4H6), nevertheless if it is not a "pure" take-out double, then it should be alerted (for example, in that case, because it might, and in fact did, have competitive under/over-tones).

Now in club bridge there are a number of pairs who play "t/o" doubles in the way described in the first sentence of OB 4D4. A recent example (with no support for the other major) was:

---

(N/S in this example are a regular, long-established partnership who may be assumed to have a full understanding of each other's bidding style. Let's not, however, get into what might or might not be good bridge.)

Do you consider disclosure on the system card to be sufficient (assuming it is there, which is often not the case), or do you consider that the double should be alerted as well?

I believe this doesn't have competitive overtones, so under the current OB rules it's not alertable. The Laws and Ethics Committee have recently decided to extend the current "highly unusual" clause for bids also to doubles and redoubles. When that comes into force (1st August?) then I think this does qualify as "highly unusual" and should be alerted. If we think their style does include competitive doubles then it's alertable whatever.