Support Doubles in Bridge: How and When to Use Them

The support double has become a very commonly used bidding tool amongst expert pairs.

How does it work?

Of course, there must be an interfering bid, or else double is not available.

A classic example

Lets take a look at a classic example

Here our double shows support -

• It is used by opener
• Partner has shown a suit
• Opener has 3 card support for partner's suit

Which means,

Up to the two level

It is common to play this up to the two level (that means partner's suit is available to bid on the 2 level), so for example lets slightly tweak that auction

Double is still support here.

What about the three level?

However, consider this auction

This is a matter of agreement. There are pairs that play support doubles at higher levels - but I would argue that with this hand it might not be so wise to enter on the three level - partner could have 6 points say. It might not be such a good idea to force your side to the 3 level with say 19 combined points and potentially only a 7 card fit. That could be trouble!

And the four level

Or, lets make the example even more extreme

It is now ridiculous for this hand to act, and force the partnership onto the 4 level. We have a minimal opening type hand, pass is much more appropriate.

We should have a much better hand to double on the 4 level, typically a distributional hand as well (we often will also have 3 cards in partner's suit, and certainly not 4, with 4 just support partner rather than double).

Read next: Takeout Doubles in Bridge: The Complete Guide · Four-Level Doubles: What to Do Next · High level doubles - penalty, negative, takeout?

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