Overcalling Part I – The SQOT Test – 15 December 2010

By now I hope you all have understood that to overcall we need a suit of at least 5 cards in length. I encourage aggressive overcalling – especially non vulnerable – but you do need to be careful about introducing bad suits into the auction when you don’t have too many high card points (“hcp”). But how to judge when to bid and when to pass I hear you wail in unison? Luckily there is a little rubric that helps and that is:

SQOT

This stands for Suit Quality Overcall Test. Be warned! It is not foolproof. Nothing ever is. But it will at least guide you towards considering the quality of the suit you want to overcall in as well as giving you a nudge towards the level at which you can be (reasonably) safe to overcall.

It goes like this: add the number of cards held in a suit to the number of honours (A,K,Q,J,10) held and the answer will give you the level at which you can overcall. Well that’s the idea anyway. But as I said be careful, especially when vulnerable. The overall quality of the rest of the hand is just as important as the suit you want to overcall with.

Some examples of suits in isolation:

A8753

A97432; ... KQ764; ... A10852; ... AQ753

AKQ84; ... AQ9652

KJ10832

The first one has a SQOT of 6 and should not be bid. The nextfour examples can be bid at the one level as the SQOT is 7. The next two have a SQOT of 8 and can be overcalled at the 2 level. The last one has a SQOT of 9 and can therefore be used in a weak jump overcall to the three level if NV. (If Vul have a 7 card suit for the 3 level)

This idea can be used for simple overcalls or Weak Jump Overcalls (5 - 10 with a good 6-card suit).

See also
http://basementbridge.blogspot.com/2010/04/responding-with-minimum-hand-and.html

If I don't see you before, have a wonderful Christmas and a very good New Year!

All the best

Kit

The Mystery Of The Missing Cue – More from the Baker Street Diaries – 18 November 2010

I had not seen Holmes for some time. I had been busy with my own affairs and he had been abroad on some investigation about global fraud and funds for hedges. I called at his rooms where he was languid as ever and regaled him with a tale of the card table.

“You see Holmes, twice my Partner opened 1H, overcalled on my right by 1S, and on both deals I was desirous of bidding 3H but for entirely different reasons. It’s all a bit of a muckle, ain’t it old boy?”

Holmes perused the two hands in question, sighing the while:

a) . xx
..... AJxx
..... Kxx
..... Kxxx

b) . xx
..... Axxxx
..... xx
..... Qxxx

“I see the quandary in which you mired yourself, Watson. With the first hand, having the required points for an invitational raise to 3H (10 -12) you made that bid, even though the opponents had intervened.

“Then when the second hand occurred you were, correctly, ready to pre-empt the opponent on your left by bidding 3H with a much weaker, more distributional hand. Had you done so your partner could only have inferred that you had hand like the first one. Did you bid 3H?”

I nodded assent that I had.

“I thought you might’ve. Partner had a rock-crusher, pushed to 6H and you went 2 down I dare say?”

I nodded again in the affirmative that he was jolly well spot right on.

“When opponents intervene, you as responder, are Snookered. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The answer is to get out your Cue when you have a good hand and leave it in its case when you don't.”

“Eh?” I snorted, “Get what out, Holmes?”

“To distinguish between a pre-emptive raise and a GOOD raise we need two different bids. If 3H is pre-emptive then what can we bid with a good hand? The answer lies in the cue; as in cue-raise. You merely bid the opponent’s suit. Now you are no longer snookered. You can bid a pre-emptive 3H with a weak hand – less than 9HCP and make a cue-raise with any 10+ HCP hand with 4 card support.”

When opponents intervene you are in a “competitive auction”. This is different from a “constructive auction” when they are silent. Therefore your aims are different. Either (1) you want to tell partner you have a good fit and 10+HCP, or (2) you want to pre-empt them out of their safety zone.

Remember, get yer retaliation in first!

Fighting Fire With Fire Pt II – More on Responding When The Opps Have Made a TakeOut Double – 23 June 2010

Last week partner opened a minor (1C or 1D) and the opponents doubled. This week Partner opens a Major (1H or 1S) and the opponents double:

When partner bids, the magical quest for slam begins. But when the opponents DOUBLE, that quest is forever lost. Well, ok, maybe 99 times out of a 100 anyway… However everything is not totally lost as game, partscore or even a juicy penalty double are all still options. Partner has opened with at least (we hope!) 12 high card points (hcp). The doubler will have – most of the time - at least 12 HCP as well, so now out of the total of 40 HCP in the pack, 24 of them have been allocated, leaving just 16 of them between you and the opponent on your left.

It is now your job to tell partner whether a) you have any points and/or b) you have a fit. Remember you have to keep the bidding alive if at all possible in case partner has opened with 20 points. This is a possibility. This is why you respond with 6 HCP. ALWAYS.

1H - X - ?

The responses aren’t that much different from when partner opens a minor. As before, all your raises of partner’s suit are pre-emptive (or stretch raises) so you show a good raise (4 cards & 10+hcp) with 2NT (Truscott). All hands with no fit and 10+ HCP go through REDOUBLE (the blue one!). Otherwise you just bid as naturally as possible.

But do remember that you MUST bid with 6 points. This means that if you can’t bid at the 2 level you'll have to bid 1NT. You’ll bid 1NT with whatever hand you have and only 6 - 9 HCP. For instance:

xxx
Qx
KJxxxx
xx

You can't bid 2D as that promises 9 or 10 HCP, so the only bid you have is 1NT. I know it doesn't describe your hand but it does at least tell partner you have 6 - 9 HCP which may be the most valuable information partner needs! There’s a useful motto:

Help Your Partner Win at Bridge!

(There's a book of the same title…)

Double – Your Flexible Friend – 8 April 2010

We’ve all got a fair idea of what each bid means, opening, responding and overcalling, but there are times when we want to compete and the bid of a suit is doesn’t quite fit the hand we have. Do we:

a) Run up the white flag? b) Hide our heads in the sand? c) Cross fingers and toes and bid anyway? d) Find a bid – or sequence of bids – that explains what we have?

Reasonably often the answer is d). And on a fair number of occasions it is best to Double. But what exactly does a double actually mean and when should we prefer it to a straight overcall?

Double of Opponents’ Opening Bid
If we double an opening bid we could have – confusingly – three distinct and different kinds of hands.

1) A shapely hand with a shortage in the opponents' bid suit
2) A hand too strong to overcall 1NT
3) A hand too strong to make a direct overcall

Which of the three you actually have does not matter initially. The key is to remember that a double is often the start of a two part communication. It is not in itself a final statement but merely the beginnings of an exchange of information.

1) They open 1H and you hold:

AKxx
x
Kxxx
Kxxx

Bidding any suit would imply that you hold five cards in that suit so you can’t do that. Yet you have a hand you want to tell partner about – you just don't yet know where, if at all, the pair of you have a fit. So you double. Initially this says you are interested in any of the other three unbid suits and have a hand of at least opening values.

With this hand you plan to pass whichever suit partner bids . Partner could jump to encourage you to continue, but failing such strong action from partner, you would need a hand of 17+ HCP to contemplate bidding on.

2) Again they open 1H but now you hold:

AQx
AQx
KJxx
Kxx

You want to bid 1NT, but this shows specifically 15 - 17 HCP. Your hand is better than this so you start with a double, intending to re-bid in NT if the auction allows it. Partner must still assume you hold a hand like hand 1) but your re-bid will further explain your hand.

3) 1H again, but now you’re dealt:

A
Axx
AKJxxx
Kxx

You want to get that Diamond suit into the auction but you also want to tell partner the general strength of your hand as well, a tidy 19hcp and too strong for a simple overcall. So now you will Double first and then – if the auction allows it – bid diamonds. Now partner can tell not only what your suit is but that you also hold a decent number of points into the bargain.

Be aware that partner will not have much. The opening on your right is about 12+ and with your 19 there are only about nine HCP going begging, but if partner has six of them you’re in the game zone.

Remember, if you Double and then bid, you show a big hand playable opposite a fairly weak (6-9) hand. And if you're really really big (22 +) you can Double and then Cue-bid!!!

Too much fun…

Kit

The World of Risk – 1 April 2010

I’m often asked, when I suggest a bid or a line of play, whether or not my suggestion is a bit on the risky side. Oooh yes. It’s all risky, guv… the moment you sit down at the Bridge table you enter a world of risk. Even the most harmless, solid opening bid can lead to disaster. The apparent cast iron lead can gift declarer a contract they should never make. There is nothing you can do about this. The god of cards is out to get you.

The only defence you have against this cruel nemesis is that you must not help him. Sometimes the god will tease you by putting all the outstanding cards exactly where you want them, so that a dodgy 2H contract makes +3 on a favourable 3-2 trump split and all the finesses working. Should you have bid the game? No. Do not make plans based on his teasing ways. Always take the middle ground. Take his gifts firm in the knowledge that next time the trumps will be 5-0 and all the finesses wrong.

What does this mean? Should we avoid all risk? Should we underbid our way to safe contracts and a warm glow of success? I think by now you know my answer. Look that god firmly in the eye and fight back. You will certainly occasionally court disaster but consider: disaster is always round the corner anyway, whatever you do. You do not make the risk. It already exists, waiting to pounce. You must take your moment of advantage and catch the pesky god when he sleeps.

Finesses
Suppose it’s early in the play of a hand, there was no opposition bidding to guide you and you hold a suit between you and dummy that looks like this:

AQ

xx

You need 2 tricks from this suit. The K will be right or wrong. There is no risk. You finesse the Q. You’ll be right exactly 50% of the time. If you play the Ace you will be wrong 100% of the time.

Raises in Competition
As I’ve said before, once you are in a competitive auction the ground has shifted. Opponents are rascals who will do anything – and I mean anything – to knock you out of your comfort zone, to destroy your peaceful exchange of information and stamp on your delicate system.

By the same token, once they interfere, you don’t want to sit idly by and watch them neatly explain their hands either. You want to cramp their space just as much. Partner opens 1S, opponents overcall 2H and you hold either of these hands:

a) Kxxx ........................ b) Kxxx
... xx ................................ x
... Axxxx .......................... Jxxxx
... Kx ............................... Qxx

With a) and without an overcall you would have made the “limit” raise of 3S (4 card support, 10 - 12 HCP). Similarly with hand b), without the overcall, you would have made the “weak” raise of 2S (4 card support, 6 - 9 HCP). But after the overcall, 2S with hand b) does no damage to them. Into the bargain, if they bid to 3H what does partner risk? PASS? 3S?

In this situation you need to get in THEIR way. So… you bid 3S! and risk you messed them up. Take the risk away from partner and transfer it to the opponents.

OK. So what do you do with hand a) that otherwise was going to bid 3S? Luckily, as a result of the overcall you now have have that extra (risk-free) bid you didn’t have before - 3H! A “cue-bid” of the opponents’ suit. This takes the place of the uncontested limit raise of 3S, allowing 3S now to be a pre-emptive and weak raise.

So:
Good hand + good support = cue-bid.
Weak hand with support = weak jump!

When both sides bid, the value of your fit is as important as your HCP. Here you can distinguish between “weak” raises and “limit” raises. The risk does not vanish You now control it.

Kit

The Weird World of Cue Bids - 29 Oct. 2009

I often get asked “So exactly what is a cue-bid?” So, here’s a little run-down of some of the more normal uses of the cue-bid with a short explanation.

To be totally honest with you there are lots of different forms of cue-bids which all have exotic names but I’m not going down that convoluted garden path. Normally when you make a bid it's:

• (a) a suit you have, and
• (b) is at least 4 cards long.

A cue bid is a bid in a suit that you DON'T necessarily have. Weird, huh? As we’ll see a cue bid can be in a suit you don't have any of AT ALL! Dangerous stuff, I know. So, I hear you shout “how do we know it’s a cue bid and not a real suit?” Well start with the obvious one:

Cue Bidding The Opponent's Suit (Also Known As: “Fit-Showing Cue Bids”)

When partner bids a suit, and your right hand opponent (RHO) overcalls, how can you tell partner the difference between a hand that just wants to get in the way and a hand that has some genuine support and strength?

1S - 2C - ?

1) xxxxx ..............................2) KJxx
... QJx .................................... KQx
... Kxxx .................................. Kxxx
... x ......................................... xx


On the first hand you want to raise the level of the bidding with a pre-empt so as to mess up the opponent's attack, so you bid 3S, weak but supportive. Fine. But next time you get the same auction you are lumbered with hand 2). This time you want to raise partner because you have points and support - so can you bid 3S? Ah, No. ’Fraid not. We just said that 3S was going to be used as a pre-emptive manoeuvre for hand 1), didn’t we? so how can we tell partner the difference?

You’ve seen it coming, I know you have... yes it’s a cue bid of the opponent’s suit - 3C!! Here is a situation where the opponent’s bid, far from making your life difficult, has actually increased your options: you can turn their intervention to your own benefit. In this way when they venture into the auction’s murky waters, the opponents in effect create for you a handy stepping stone that was not previously there.

This “stepping stone” principle has many uses:

“Control Asking Cue Bids”

1D - 1H - 2H?

In this auction your 2H cue-bid not only tells partner you have values (probably 10+) but also asks if partner can stop the hearts suit well enough to bid No Trumps. Now the stepping stone is practically a full-blown bridge with 2-way traffic: you just told partner something AND asked a question all in one bid. 2H could mean a number of things but it is FORCING and asks partner to explain their hand further.

Clearly, in these situations when you bid the opponent’s suit, it’s a suit in all probability you don’t have. But it’s nevertheless a bid packed with extra illumination and intent like an information super highway. It also has the added value of freeing up all the direct raises of partner’s suit (1S - ? - 2/3/4S) as annoying defensive measures designed to clog up the opponents’ exchange and force them down an information cul-de-sac.

There’s more....

“Control Showing Cue Bids”

1S -PASS - 3S - PASS
4C?

Why is partner suddenly bidding this Club suit? Has partner pulled out the wrong card? Is partner having a stroke? We’ve agreed spades. So why doesn’t partner just bid game or slam or whatever? Unless ..... it’s a cue-bid!

This time there’s no opposition bidding but now partner wants to tell you something more. A trump suit has been agreed and a new suit has been introduced below game level. What’s the message? The only reason for this bid is that partner has sights set on the possibility of a slam and is giving you information in the hope that you can reciprocate; it’s a control showing cue bid ie thpartner is saying I have “control” of the club suit, that is to say the ace of clubs. The hand could be something like

AKxxxx ................ QJxx
Ax ........................ Kxx
Kxxx .................... AJxx
A .......................... xx

Now, if you’re lucky enough to hold the ace of diamonds, you can cue-bid that as well and suddenly slam looks a pretty good prospect and the auction could go something like:

1S .............. 3S
4C ............. 4D
4H ............. 5H
6S

4C, 4D & 4H all show first round control of the suits mentioned (i.e. aces or voids) while, as the ace has already been shown, 5H must be a second round control (ie king or singleton). So just as you can get quite specific about not only the number of points in a hand or the length of a particular suit, you can also tell partner about specific individual cards (normally only once a suit has been agreed, so be careful!)

The other basic thing to remember about all these Cue bids is that they are unconditionally forcing. That is, partner CANNOT pass. Under any circumstances. Whatever they’ve got. Whoever they are. Claiming to be of royal descent will not suffice. Remember the graffiti in the 3rd level dungeon at the Tower of London? It says it all:

“Who passeth fawcing byd
soonest be sans hyd”

As AJP Taylor so memorably said in his book Really Bad Mistakes by Royalty: “Without that erroneous PASS, the Queen would have lived; our Nation’s history radically altered.”

Those who yearn for more rarified stuff can look up Michaels Cue-bids, Fourth Suit Forcing cue bids, Western Cue bids, Eastern Cue bids, and that old favourite - Invisible cue bids. (I promise you these all exist!)

Enjoy!