[Justus65]

This is a basic bidding sequence:

1x-dbl-rdbl

It show we have the majority of points, and some interest in playing doubled. On BBO the explanation is "opponents cannot play below 2NT undoubled".

So far so good.

I've had this sequence many times, and often at a later stage I double the opponents for penalties. I cannot remember a single time that GIB let it in. Every, EVERY time it runs away from my penalty double. I am now half-convinced this is hard-coded into GIB (directly or implicitly). I'd welcome a hand that proves me wrong...

[smerriman]

Interesting. GIB is well known to pull the majority of (what should be) penalty doubles, but I always thought this was one of the sequences where you can actually get a penalty double left in.

Take the classic case - nobody has a fit, but South can penalise anything: after the doubler escapes, GIB happily leaves it in:

---

Where GIB really falls down is that when West gives an immediate preference to a suit, GIB will often bid immediately, even with a boring hand at the 3 level, rather than make a forcing pass to see if you want to penalise first:

---

[Justus65]

Possibly GIB has more confidence in your defending skills than in mine.....

smerriman, on 2022-March-03, 22:46, said:

Interesting. GIB is well known to pull the majority of (what should be) penalty doubles, but I always thought this was one of the sequences where you can actually get a penalty double left in.

Take the classic case - nobody has a fit, but South can penalise anything: after the doubler escapes, GIB happily leaves it in:

---

Where GIB really falls down is that when West gives an immediate preference to a suit, GIB will often bid immediately, even with a boring hand at the 3 level, rather than make a forcing pass to see if you want to penalise first:

---

[thepossum]

One of my favorites is the risky takeout double of 2M which is often left in. I try to avoid doing it. Remarkably sometimes it works as penalty

Today it worked because it had qjtxx of trumps opposite a monster hand. It scores ok but it's not quite satisfactory

[thepossum]

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