EW Vul N Dealer	♠ ♥ K Q 7 2 ♦ J 8 7 4 3 ♣ 10 9 7 5
♠ A 9 5 ♥ A 9 3 ♦ 9 ♣ J 8 6 4 3 2		♠ K J 3 2 ♥ J 10 8 6 5 4 ♦ A K ♣ K
	♠ Q 10 8 7 6 4 ♥ ♦ Q 10 6 5 2 ♣ A Q

Is opener’s double for penalties or takeout? Or is it partnership agreement?

With thanks
Margaret Foster

Hi Margaret,
In that auction, I would say it is mostly down to partnership agreement. I would say, if the overcall was 4♥ (say the opening bid was 1♦ then a 4♥ overcall), then opener’s double tends to be more “takeout”. But when the overcall is 4♠, this is where the meaning of the X can diverge as different partnerships may prefer different things.
My preference is that it is not “purely penalties” (such as the actual hand), and not “purely takeout” (such as a pure 1543 type of shape), but somewhere in between where I’m happy if partner takes it out, but also happy if partner doesn’t want to bid and passes the X to collect the money. The typical hand might be something like a good hand with 2533 or 1633 or 1543. Some people might call it “cards” or “transferable values”. What this means is that if I have a “pure penalty” such as the actual hand, I would be forced to essentially pass – which of course is unfortunate, but typically when the opponents overcall 4M, they tend to have a long suit so I would seldom have a “pure penalty” type of hand.
What this means for the actual hand is that I am most likely ‘forced’ to pass it out which is OK since 4♥ wasn’t making in the first place. You might think that it was an opportunity lost and decide to play double of 4♠ as penalties, but then when you pick up ♠x ♥AKxxx ♦KJx ♣KQJx next time, you won’t be able to double 4♠ (for points/takeout) being afraid of partner passing (thinking that our double is strictly penalties) as we may not have enough defensive tricks to beat 4♠. So essentially, it is a big loop and it just depends on what type of hand comes up that suits your needs!

Hope that helps,
Andy