1H-D - Entry ID17517

T75 J8 AQ974 AQ9

Bidding - 1 - ??

In Bobby Wolff's "Aces" newspaper column on 12-11-20128, Wolff says while the diamond suit is fine for a 1-level overcall, when on the 2 level, "suit quality and tactics play a part."

His objection to the suit is that it just has 5 cards. He anticipates people objecting to just having 3 spades by on the same grounds, but then you are comparing majors and minors, and he adds "doubling may get partner to bid spades -- but are you sure that is such a bad idea? I would double rather than bid diamonds."

Entry ID5219 is based on this hand from Mike Lawrence's book Takeout Doubles, page 12:

AJ7 632 KJ4 AJ63

This is a similar shape though with more HCP in spades.

Here are two top experts saying that it is okay to make a takeout double of a major with only 3 of the other major and without a strong (17+) hand nor the ability to make an Equal Level Conversion.

Despite the name, BridgeBum.com is an excellent resource for bidding theory and they say:

The double usually shows 11+ points and 3+ cards in each unbid suit.