Bridge Bidding Poll Results
I polled on LJ, and also heard responses from a bunch of other good players.
The overall majority think that if you were playing with a partner with whom you'd never discussed doubles at all, it would be penalty.
LJ commenters seemed to be overwhelmingly in favor of it being takeout.
However, Dave Brower, Joel Datloff, and Henry Lortz all think it should be for penalty.
Ray Miller proposes and discards a third meaning (interest in competing in diamonds), and settles on takeout as his favorite.
My gut intuition also was that it should be takeout (how many times have you wished you could bid garbage stayman with 44 in the majors but not enough diamonds?) But there are lots of balanced 7-8 counts you'd like to take a crack with too. I remain unconvinced of either approach. I'd like to see a random simulation done.
The overall majority think that if you were playing with a partner with whom you'd never discussed doubles at all, it would be penalty.
LJ commenters seemed to be overwhelmingly in favor of it being takeout.
However, Dave Brower, Joel Datloff, and Henry Lortz all think it should be for penalty.
Ray Miller proposes and discards a third meaning (interest in competing in diamonds), and settles on takeout as his favorite.
My gut intuition also was that it should be takeout (how many times have you wished you could bid garbage stayman with 44 in the majors but not enough diamonds?) But there are lots of balanced 7-8 counts you'd like to take a crack with too. I remain unconvinced of either approach. I'd like to see a random simulation done.