LHO
Partner RHO You
1NT 2C DBL 2D
Partner’s 2C overcall is the DONT convention (clubs and another suit) and your RHO’s double is Stayman. If RHO had passed, your 2D would be a pass-or-correct bid, telling partner you prefer his second suit. Does it have the same meaning here? What type of hand would you be showing if you had instead redoubled or bid 2H or 2S?
When you choose a notrump defense method, it’s not enough to just know the meanings of your first bid and the standard follow-ups. There are other situations that need discussion. One of the most important is how you’ll handle competition.
In the auction above, a recommended agreement is to use redouble to send the “bid your other suit” message. Pass says you prefer clubs and a bid of a new suit shows your own long suit. If your RHO bids a suit instead of doubling, your double shows support for any of partner’s possible second suits and encourages him to compete.
The same meanings work with other conventions that have unknown suits. If you were playing Cappelletti in this auction (2C is an unspecified one-suiter), your double or redouble of RHO's call shows some values and interest in playing in partner's suit – a hand such as ♠AQ3 ♥J105 ♦10943 ♣K86. Any suit bid by you shows length and warns partner you probably don’t have support for his suit.
Suit lengths. Another area for discussion is the minimum lengths for two-suited bids. Safest is to promise at least 5-5, but those hands are so rare that you’ll miss many opportunities to compete. You'll be dealt a 5-4 or longer pattern about seven times more often than 5-5.
Most pairs agree that 5-4 is fine if you have decent suit quality and can find your fit at the 2-level. With conventions that might force you to the 3-level to play in your second suit, you may want to require 5-5, especially when vulnerable.
The concern when partner is 5-4 is that you’ll have equal length in his suits and won’t know which to choose. After partner overcalls 2D (both majors) and your RHO passes, you have to bid 2H when you’re 2-2 or 3-3 in his suits. If his spades were longer, you’ve landed in your shorter fit.
Some conventions have a built-in way to sort this out. Woolsey, Landy and Multi-Landy define 2C as both majors, allowing you to use 2D to ask partner to bid his longer suit. If your RHO doubles partner's 2C overcall, changing the meaning of 2D will give you an extra option. You can pass with equal length in partner’s suits and use 2D to offer a better contract – a hand such as ♠6 ♥84 ♦QJ10643 ♣K954.
3-level overcalls. With some methods, the only way to show a minor one-suiter is to jump to 3C or 3D. Most conventions don't define other jump overcalls, so you should decide what they mean.
Not vulnerable, jumps can be pure preempts that are weak, but have lots of tricks (6 to be safe). Vulnerable, though, you may want to play 3-level bids as constructive, promising around 8 tricks and encouraging partner to bid game if he has a few tricks. You might make a vulnerable 3H overcall with ♠AQJ ♥KQJ10986 ♦J105 ♣Void .
Direct vs. balancing seat. You should agree that overcalls can be shaded down after partner and RHO pass 1NT, but you may want to make other modifications, too. A “classic” penalty double in this seat is of limited value because your honors are onside for declarer. Some pairs play a double here as cooperative, showing around 13-14+ points (partner needs 8-9+ points to pass). You could also choose to play different conventions in direct and balancing seats.
Game tries. When partner overcalls, your main goal
is to find a reasonable partscore, not a game. It’s possible, though, that
you’ll be dealt a big supporting hand that justifies searching for game,
especially at IMPs. Do you invite with a jump or free raise in partner’s suit, a
2NT advance, a cuebid of RHO’s suit if he bids? This won’t come up often, but if
it does, you’ll be glad you have a plan.
How do you bid a “weak freak” when your opponent opens a strong 1NT? Here’s one that tested the judgment of players in a national tournament years ago:
Neither side
vulnerable at matchpoints, your right-hand opponent opens 1NT (15-17). What’s
your call holding
♠Void
♥2 ♦9754
♣AQJ109876 ?
My partner overcalled 5C and was doubled by his LHO, who held a balanced 13-count. I put down a disappointing dummy -- ♠J10762 ♥QJ108 ♦J103 ♣2 – and we were down three for minus 500. The opponents had 28 high-card points and two 4-4 major-suit fits, but couldn’t even make a game.
Over in another section, my friend Tod held the long-club hand. Before the session, his partner (my husband Mike) had taught him the DONT notrump defense, which uses an overcall of 2C, 2D or 2H to show that suit and a higher-ranking one. When his RHO opened 1NT, Tod decided to try out his new convention and overcalled 2C.
The 1NT opener’s partner doubled 2C and, holding my hand, Mike redoubled to tell Tod to bid his second suit. Tod, however, had forgotten what the redouble meant, and really didn’t care. The 1NT opener passed to see where Tod would run, but Tod passed, too. He scored up +560 and declared that he loved this convention.
The 8-4 distribution is hardly what DONT creator Marty Bergen had in mind for a two-suited overcall. The difference between Tod’s approach and my partner’s, though, offers a good lesson on how to bid wildly distributional hands in these auctions.
On most deals, it’s good preempting strategy to bid immediately to the maximum safe level. One way to make that decision is to apply the Rule of 2, 3 & 4. It advises that you can preempt two levels higher than your playing tricks when you’re red vs. white, three tricks higher at equal vulnerability and four tricks higher when white vs. red.
If you rely only on that rule, 5C seems about right. Your hand is counted as five losers and eight winners, so at equal vulnerability (Rule of 3), the 11-trick level is ostensibly safe.
This is a guideline, not a guarantee. The reason the Rules of 3 and 4 deem those overbids safe is that they presume partner will have a trick for you. On average, he probably will, but the odds go down when an opponent has a strong balanced hand. The worst case, which happened here, is partner will have tricks on defense, but nothing to help you.
Another consideration is the auction so far. Preempts are most effective when your opponents haven’t yet exchanged information. If you were the opening bidder – or even if your RHO had opened one of a suit -- 5C would be a better gamble. Over a strong 1NT, though, you’re at a disadvantage because your LHO already has such a good picture of his partner’s strength and distribution.
The main drawback of 5C is that, safe or not, it actually consumes too much space. Your goal in preempting is not just to declare and get a smaller minus score than their game. You’re also hoping you'll cause them to miss their game or slam or, best, that they bid too high and you get a plus score. For that to happen, you have to give them room to make a mistake.
Your LHO might be tempted to bid over 3C or 4C, but not at the 5-level. If you leap to 5C, you can be pretty sure that will be the final contract, doubled, with no chance for a better result. You also have to hope partner has just the right hand -- enough tricks to keep you from going down three, but not so many that the opponents can't make game.
Whether Tod’s 2C overcall was a misuse of his
convention or strategic brilliance, it worked better than blindly following the
Rule of 3. When you have a preempting opportunity over their strong 1NT,
consider being a bit more conservative than usual -- or maybe, like Tod,
creating some action with a bid no one else will make. Whatever alternative you
choose, it rates to be better than blasting to a level that endplays the
opponents into collecting a big penalty.
Vulnerable at matchpoints, your LHO opens a
strong 1NT, passed around to you. What’s your call holding
♠1097653
♥532
♦5
♣K53 ?
It’s common to loosen your overcall requirements in the balancing seat. Defending 1NT is often a poor result, so players look for excuses to compete when they hold distributional hands. The best reason is a 6+-card suit or a 5-5 two-suiter, but even a 5-4 hand offers a decent chance of finding a good partscore.
A balanced hand, even a fairly strong one, should pass. It’s too risky to look for a fit when you have only one 5-card suit or a 4-4 "two-suiter". With these hands, your best shot at a good result is trying to defeat 1NT, especially when opener is vulnerable.
How far should you stretch? Mel Colchamiro, who gave us the Rule of 8 for overcalling their 1NT in direct seat, offers the “Rule of 2” for the pass-out seat. He advises that you should balance with any hand that has least two shortness points (based on Void=3, Singleton=2, Doubleton=1), no matter what your high-card strength.
The hand above and even weaker ones – a Yarborough with two doubletons -- would qualify. That may appear reckless, but it's based on simple arithmetic. When responder passes a strong 1NT opening, each partnership has, on average, half the deck's high cards. The weaker your hand, the more of your combined 20 points partner will have – and the more of your side’s honors will be well-placed over the 1NT opener.
That’s the theory, but keep in mind that your 20 points is just an average expectation. The opponents could have as few as 15 combined points or as many as 24-25. If it’s near either extreme, you'll probably be sorry you balanced.
What will partner expect? The bigger problem with bidding with such a weak hand is that your partner has another turn to bid. Will he find a pass of 2S when he holds his “average" of 17 points? If your system uses a double to start the description of a one-suiter, will partner know he shouldn't pass with ♠KJ ♥AQ64 ♦AQJ6 ♣1064 ?
If you defend: Opening leads are a consideration, too. If you pass 1NT, partner will probably lead a diamond. If you bid 2S and the opponents compete, you’ve talked partner into leading a spade. You'd feel better about bidding with a 3-count if the points were in your long suit.
Conventions: Your style and point ranges for these bids are good topics for partnership discussion. You may want to modify your current methods or play a different convention in balancing seat. If your system defines double as penalty (17+ points) in direct seat, consider playing it as more of a cooperative double in the pass-out seat -- 14+ points, usually semi-balanced. Partner needs around 8+ points to leave it in.
Matchpoints vs. IMPs: If you adopt Mel’s Rule of 2 or any other ultra-light balancing style, reserve it for matchpoints. At IMPs, it's not worth fighting for a partscore when there’s a real chance of going for a big number. Team play is all about bidding games, and if you ever want to find one after they open 1NT, partner has to be able to make intelligent decisions. He can't do that if your overcall range is 0 to 14 points.
Have you decided on your call with the hand at the beginning of this article? The problem was originally posed in 2006 in the Bridge Bulletin “It's Your Call" feature. The experts were evenly split between Pass and 2S, with many of the spade bidders expressing confidence that their partner wouldn’t hang them.
The panel offered good arguments for each action, but my favorite comment came from this passer, the late Grant Baze:
BAZE: “Pass. We don’t have a zero yet. At
some point, respect for vulnerability has to outweigh matchpoint madness. For
me, this is that point.”
Copyright © 2019 Karen Walker