[shevek]

Partner opens 2♠ Muiderberg. 5♠s+ a minor, 6-10 pts, usually 5-5.

2♠ - (no) - 3♠ - (3NT)

Your 3♠ is "to play"

This comes back to you and you double.
Does this say "They are in trouble, make your usual lead, presumably a spade."

Or does it say "I have a decent hand but my spades are crap. You might try your minor."
So something like
♠xxxx ♥Axx ♦Kxx ♣Kxx.

[WesleyC]

Although I like the idea of lead deflecting bids in many auctions (especially doubles of stopper asking cuebids), I think not having a generic penalty double in this auction is crazy.

[rhm]

WesleyC, on 2015-April-17, 00:38, said:

Although I like the idea of lead deflecting bids in many auctions (especially doubles of stopper asking cuebids), I think not having a generic penalty double in this auction is crazy.

Not sure.
It boils down to is it more important to defeat the contract or to increase the penalty?

If you do not double how often will partner lead anything but spades?
If you have a generic penalty how often will you need a spade lead to beat it?

My guess is that lead deflecting has a higher success rate, but I would not use it unless I have a clear agreement on this.

Rainer Herrmann

[KurtGodel]

rhm, on 2015-April-17, 02:57, said:

Not sure.
It boils down to is it more important to defeat the contract or to increase the penalty?

If you do not double how often will partner lead anything but spades?
If you have a generic penalty how often will you need a spade lead to beat it?

My guess is that lead deflecting has a higher success rate, but I would not use it unless I have a clear agreement on this.

Rainer Herrmann

I agree that it is potentially more useful to have it as lead deflecting, but without having talked about it, I think it's just a penalty double.

[WesleyC]

Even if you have talked about it, I doesn't feel logical in this sequence.

For the double to be possible, partner needs length and values in both minors along with length but no values in spades. The logical extension is that partner must be relatively short in hearts, however they were prepared to risk a 3S bid and suggest a potentially fatal spade lead against 4H.

If you parlay all of these things together, the frequency of a suitable hand must be pretty minuscule.

[mcphee]

For me this dble says do not lead S, unless of course partner has a reason for knowing a S is best. The dble may be such that any lead is fine. If under normal circumstances when partner is going to lead S on this type of auction I am happy to take it in fifties, doubles for 1 trick sets do not pay off at imps.