Protective Doubles in Bridge
Play through the hand featured in the video:
Protective doubling is when someone has bid and the next two players have passed, ie 1♥ – pass – pass – ?. The bidding is about to end if you pass in 4th position, so you should do everything possible to keep the bidding open for two reasons:
- Your partner could have up to 14 points, so you are protecting her good hand and your side may well have a contract of their own
- You will force the opponents to bid up a level and they may now go down
So when you are in the protective position, after two passes and the bidding is about to die:
- Borrow a King, so double on as little as 9+ points