Stephen Tu, on 2013-February-26, 18:53, said:
I got grief for not bidding again, fair?
Obviously I don't think so, because I would have done the same as you did. If someone said it was clear for you to act I don't think he's being very objective.
Quote
What's another double by me supposed to show, anyway, distributionally, if I held some other hand?
It shows support for both red suits, so typically 3442 or 3451. Obviously sometimes you'll have less good shape and more high cards, but the assumption is that double-then-double shows the right shape for a takeout double. With 18+ balanced you would normally double and then bid notrumps. This hand is unusual because you have the strong balanced hand, no spade stop, and poor support for one of the unbid suits.
Quote
How are teammates supposed to signal to find the club ruff
As it went that seems too hard, but perhaps they could had a better auction? If North, who seems to have had 109xxxxx xx Qxx x, had bid 3
♠ on the first round, he might have played there for +140 or -50 (on a minor-suit lead there's a trump promotion for one down).
If the opponents had still got to 4
♥, opener would now have known that a second spade wasn't cashing. He'd still have to decide whether to play declarer for his actual hand or for something like x 10xxxxx QJxx xx. An "obvious shift" style would work well here - a discouraging spade would show
♦K, so North would "encourage" spades and South would switch to a club.
In my prosaic style North would just give count and South would have to guess. It's not much of a guess, though. Declarer is much more likely to have nine red cards with
♦K than ten red cards without it, so with no other indication I'd play for the club ruff.