Responses in Competition – The Opponents Attack – 4 Feb 2010

Last week we looked at limit bids and how useful they are at quickly letting partner know the safety of the path towards Eternal Bridge Happiness. This week we’ll look at what happens when the opponents attack our leisurely stroll through the bidding box towards our ultimate goal.

Once the opponents overcall our opening bid – do not despair. While it is true that they will try to deprive you of space, disrupt your communications and generally be unpleasant, it’s crucial to
understand that they also, as a result of the overcall, gift you a whole TWO extra bids you wouldn’t otherwise have at your command. These wonderful explanatory bids they dump
freely in your lap are:

1) Double
2) Cue-Bid

Let’s take an example:

xx
KQxx
xx
Kxxx

Partner opens 1D and your hand hovers over 1H, but out of the corner of your eye you notice the opponent on your right putting down 1S! This is annoying, but at least not as annoying as if they’d put down 2S! (Weak Jump Overcall) But all the same, your intended bid – 1H – is now unbiddable. You have a reasonable responding hand, 8HCP, no immediate fit for partner’s suit but you want to bid with any hand worth more than 6HCP. What are your options?

With 6 - 9 HCP you might think: that’s what I’ll tell partner, so - 1NT. Yes but, no but but but but … 1NT in this sequence, where opponents bid, should promise a stop in their suit. I’m not saying you should always have AK in their suit, but four to the J at the very least. Here you have nothing like that at all. So 1NT is OUT. Have another think.

What about 2C? It's true you have 4 clubs and the bid of 2C doesn’t promise any more than that, but what it would promise is 10 HCP (Possibly 9 with a decent 5 card suit.) You have 8HCP. So both 1NT & 2C would be lies, would set partner off on the wrong track and might get you into the proverbial mire, ending up 3 down doubled and partner getting all tight-lipped. So should you just quietly PASS?

Nooooooo!!! The answer is clear-cut. Instead of casting about for a bid you don’t have – DOUBLE!

In these low-level auctions Double is for “take-out”, i.e. it asks partner pretty please to bid. It doesn’t promise masses of HCP or anything, nor any great holding in the opponents’ suit but what it does promise is : interest in the two so far unbid suits – hearts and clubs in our example and about 7+ HCP. So, far from being a nuisance, the opponents bid has given you a chance to tell partner much much more than without the overcall. Before, you were going to bid 1H. Now, you have, effectively, bid 1H & 2C all at the same time. That’ll teach ’em to interfere!

Cue-Bid To Show A Fit!

As the piece last week tried to point out, if you have a fit for partner you must convey the news as soon as possible about it and at the right level so partner may judge any further course of action.

This is fine in unopposed auctions, but in real life you bid, they overcall. They want to make life difficult, steal the auction, disrupt your partnership harmony and watch you fret. Well, frankly m’ dear, two can play at that game.

You have:

x
Kxxx
xxx
Kxxxx

The bidding goes: 1H(partner) - 1S(Overcall) - ???? Now what do you do?

2H is the “correct”, by the book bid. 6HCP plus some shortage extras make the hand worth about 9. If there were only 3 hearts in the hand then 2H would (probably) be right. But 2H does absolutely no damage to THEM. Overcaller’s partner can now freely bid 2S and your partner is now deep in the land of GUESSWORK.

Almost anything poor partner does now could be wrong. PASS, 2NT, 3H all fraught with danger. And it’s no good watching partner squirm and feeling smug – you sink or swim together. So take that guess away from partner and do it yourself. Bid 3H!

This says: “I have a 4-card fit, a few points and not much else, so I’m getting in their faces before they have a chance to take over.”

This bid, variously known as a “stretch raise” or “bidding to the level of the fit”, applies only when they overcall. Otherwise stick with what we did last week.

But then what happens when you have this sort of hand?

xx
KQxx
Axx
Qxxx

On the evidence of last week, after 1H from partner and NO overcall, you should bid 3H – limit bid: 10 -12 HCP. But, after the overcall situation above, we just used 3H to be a bit of a difficult, lousy, obstructive, petulant obfuscator. So now, when they have overcalled, we can’t use 3H. That bid would tell partner we are bidding defensively, while what we actually want to do is tell partner we are attacking with the goal of bidding game still very much in view. Damn. Damn. Damn.

Luckily, all is not lost, and a torch is lit in the gathering gloom. The auction has gone 1H - (1S) - ??? You now, as I said earlier, have 2 extra bids. Well we used one of them already – the double, so now it’s time for the other – the CUE BID.

In a “competitive” auction – after they bid – a cue bid is a bid of THEIR suit and says “I like your bid partner. Ignore these upstarts. I have good support and good points – anything from 10 +HCP upwards.”

So the bidding goes: 1H - (1S) - 2S!

In this case the cue bid says nothing about the spade suit but is used as a stepping stone to help partner cross the lake to the next level knowing they won’t sink. The overcall HASN’T made life difficult at all. It meant you were able to distinguish between a hand with “real” support for partner (cue bid) and a hand with nuisance value (jump raise).

Don’t be put off by overcalls. They are designed to shove you off the path. Shove back. Help your partner. Partner needs you. Above all, if you do PASS partner will know you don’t have a fit or any points or the other suits. This is incredibly valuable information. What responder DOESN'T do is just as important as what he does do.

Negative Doubles Pt 2 - Working with Partner To Penalise Opponents - 13 Nov 2009

Having given you Pt 1. of Negative Doubles last week - here’s part 2! What do you do on the rare occasion when you DO have their suit? And you want to punish them for being over-aggressive? Say, you have this hand and hear the following auction:

xx
QJx
AJxxx
Kxx

1S - (2D) - ?

Now, because of negative doubles, if you try and double 2D, partner will assume - rightly - that you’ve got hearts and clubs. Now the auction is beginning to sound doomed to massive terminal mis-understandings. You'll keep trying to sign off in NT and before you know where you are you’ll be in 6NT missing the AK of hearts, partner starts blinking with rage and looks up “assassination” on the iPhone.

I expect a lot of you will think the only bid you have is 2NT, showing 11 - 12 HCP and a diamond stop or two. It’s true it would express the hand and partner can’t really complain about that can they? Can they? Hmmm. Let's say partner passes 2NT and it makes: you score 120. (70 + 50) How’s about, guys and gals, if I told you you could get a possible 500 out of this hand? Stop muttering “man’s mad ...” and have a look at this auction:

1S - (2D) - PASS! - (pass)
X! - (pass) - PASS! - (pass)

Yes, you PASS! their 2D bid. Then, assuming partner co-operates by making a re-opening Double, you simply PASS! again. Now you’ve converted the re-opening double into a penalty double. Three down, doubled not vulnerable is 500. Even two down vulnerable is 500 as well. (Three down is 800, but let’s not get over-excited here.)

The point to remember is to work together with partner to get the best result. Don’t try and do it all on your own. It’s a partnership game.

No Trumps & Negative Doubles - 5 Nov. 2009

In preparation for the upcoming series of teams matches the new Princess of Wales league team faces we played a series of 4 board matches last night just to get used to the scoring and the way a match works. There then followed some of the dullest hands I have ever seen in my life so I shall not be discussing any of them. Naturally, we still had LOTS of fun …

One of the key aspects of the Acol system I teach is the range for NT openings and rebids. These are well worth memorising while decorating the loo or washing the car. (“Make those dull jobs sparkle with shiny new, improved bridge lessons …”) SO …

When you have a Balanced hand your shape will be 4333, 4432 or 5332. You will most probably at some time in the auction want to bid NT, unless a 4-4 or 5-3 major suit fit appears before then. The way to deal with these hands depends on your point count. Remember – game is on when the partnership has about 25 hcp.

12 - 14 = open 1NT
15 - 16 = open 1 of a suit and ReBid 1NT
17 - 18 = open 1 of a suit and ReBid 2NT
19 - 20 = open 1 of a suit and ReBid 3NT
21 - 22 = open 2NT
23 - 24 = open 2C and ReBid 2NT
25 + = open 2C and ReBid 3NT


With this system you can tell partner about a whole variety of differing point counts in just two bids. When you limit your hand in this way partner has a much better idea of whether game is on or not.

Kxxx
Qxx
Kxxx
xx

This hand has no intention of being in game after the sequences:

1) ... 1NT - ? ............................ (14 + 8 = 22) No game - you pass.

2) ... 1H - 1S
...... 1NT - ? ............................ (16 + 8 = 24) No game - you pass.

But after

3) ... 1H - 1S
...... 2NT - 3NT! . you are happy to give partner the raise to game. (17 + 8 = 25!)


4) ... Just remember to close the windows before you hose down the car...


Negative Doubles (pt 1)

It’s extremely unlikely you’ll want to make a penalty double of an opposition contract in the early rounds of bidding. But Double is a legitimate bid you can make at any time in a competitive auction.

Fair enough. But ... if it’s not a PENALTY double – what does it mean and when can I use it? If you have a hand like this and you get the auction below:

xx
KQxx
QJxx
xxx

1C - 1S - ?

you’re a bit stuffed for a natural bid, aren’t you? 1NT is possible but you don’t actually have the spade stop it would promise your beloved partner. Nor, as you don't have 10HCP, can you bid at the 2 level with 2D. Nor even can you bid 2H, as not only do you not have 10HCP, you also don’t have the 5 card heart suit you’d be promising. But you want to bid, don’t you? The 1S overcall has annoyingly done just what it set out to do – destroy your peaceful constructive conversation.

This is where the red Double card comes into its own. When you plonk it on the baize it says: “Thanks for opening, partner and I would like to assist you in your search for a suitable contract, but as you can see the opponents have stuck a wrench in the mangle and I can’t now make a natural bid. HOWEVER – I do have some points and what is more I have the two so far unbid suits Hearts & Diamonds, so if there’s anything you can do with that information to extract the wrench, good luck! Phew!”

It’s called a negative double because you don’t have support for partner and you don't have a NT stop in the opponent’s suit either. Doubles like this carry the message “I want to compete but I’m not sure where.” Normally negative doubles apply up to 3S, but do NOT apply after 1NT has been bid, nor when you and partner have agreed a suit.

See you next week

Kit