MORE OVERCALLS

Spock jumped as the Klingon warrior banged his fist on the blue plasti-form table.
"You tell me to compete; to be aggressive; to overcall with thin values; now suddenly you get all cautious and tell me NOT to overcall with this hand. What's the truth?"
Spock considered the hand under scrutiny on the integrated Bridge visi-display:
xx
Qxx
Qxxxx
AKx
"So, you were Vulnerable, they were not, RHO opened 1S, you overcalled 2D, LHO made a negative Double, both partner and RHO passed and you went for -800?"
The Klingon snarled his assent. "At least everybody else did the same with my hand - with different results, I admit."
Spock considered the hand carefully. "There are three main reasons why you should overcall. 1) To obstruct. 2) To steal. 3) To suggest a lead."
"I understand all that." said the Klingon firmly. "What I don't get is why it was so wrong this time."
"Consider first the Vulnerability. This is crucial. They were Not Vul but you were. Even 1 down doubled is -200. Overcalls at the 1 level can be made on thin values - especially when Not Vul. However the 2 level is hugely different. When you go into battle you first make sure you have the weapons and armour you need, with your phaser set to 'KILL', don't you?"
"Oh yes." murmured the Klingon.
"So why would you go into battle with this deeply useless scrappy awful little Diamond suit? You don't want partner to lead it and you neither obstruct nor steal. In fact, you stick you head up and get it blown away. Why? Because you were not enough armoured. When you overcall VULNERABLE at the 2 level you need a much better suit - AKxxxx perhaps, and/or a better hand. The hand above is barely, at the very outside, worth an opening 1NT, 3rd in hand, Not Vulnerable. On a good day...  Also to consider is the hand shape - 5332. This a NT shape. If you can't overcall in NT's (15+) then it is almost always right to pass with these hands. At whatever Vulnerability. I might - just about - allow it if the hand looked like this with high cards concentrated in the long suit..."
xx
Qxx
AKQxx
xxx
The Klingon looked thoughtful. "So. If I want to overcall at the 2 level - and we are Vulnerable - I better really, really, really mean it?"
"In the long run, to be precise, the odds favour a 6 card suit with 2 of the top 3 honours."

NEGATIVE INFERENCE

"You see, men" said Capt Mainwaring firmly to the assembled platoon, "when you make a bid, partner can infer that you have such and such, depending on your bid."
"Such as such as what?" asked Pike.
"Such as whatever you bid, stupid boy."
"Such as what have I bid?"
The Captain paused while untold vile and disgusting epithets fought in his mind to be heard. When he had controlled himself he again took breath...
""Are you alright Captain," asked Private Godfrey, "Only you went a bit red then."
"I'm fine thank you Godfrey. Now where was I?"
"You were about to tell Pike what he'd jolly well bid." Said Lance Corporal Jones
"But I haven't bid anything yet. That's the whole point," said Pike smugly.
"It was," said the Captain in a voice of pure cold steel, "An hypothetical bid..."
"I don't think we've heard about them!" said Private Frazer.
"Perhaps if the Captain could just continue...?"
"Good idea, Wilson. I shall do just that. Now, chaps, if you open 1C or 1D and partner responds 1NT you will know, or can positively infer, that they have exactly 6 - 9 HCP. No more, no less. But there is also a Negative Inference that you are entitled to draw: to wit - that they also do NOT hold a 4 card or better Major suit. There is therefore no earthly point trying to find a 4-4 major suit fit later in the auction as you already know this to be an impossibility. Which is the reason why if you, as responder, DO hold a 4 card major then you MUST bid it, otherwise partner will not be able to evaluate the hand properly. It also follows that when partner opens 1 of a suit (ie does not open 1NT!) you can make the reasonable Negative Inference that they do not have a balanced 12 - 14 count. Just be sure your inferences are appropriate to your holding!"
"Blimey!" said Walker, "I met a land-girl the other night and she was like that: negative to what I was holding!"

LEBENSOHL

When partner opens 1NT and RHO bids a suit you may just want to play in a 6 card minor at the 3 level. The only problem is that if you bid 3 of a minor directly it is FORCING. So what's to do? The secret is to use 2NT as an intermediate bid (sometimes known as a "puppet"). This warns partner you have no interest in game. Partner MUST first bid 3C (like a transfer) which you can then either pass or CORRECT to your suit. Partner should then Pass.
This is the basis of the LEBENSOHL convention. It is a system for dealing with intervention after 1NT when you have no interest in Game. It follows then that you can use direct 3 level bids to force partner to bid on.
This is only part of the system, but you should be aware of it as it is very common in club bridge. It also has other uses which are far more complex and should only be used in a practised partnership!
There are also other situations where 2NT no longer has its normal meaning. This is because in competitive auctions, 2NT is rarely a useful bid, as the key is usually to locate a sensible suit fit, and if you have a 2NT (10 - 12 balanced) hand you should probably be doubling for penalties. For instance, after a weak 2 opening, there is a difference between
2S (weak) - X - Pass - 3H

and

2S (weak) - X - Pass - 2NT
Pass - 3C  -  Pass - 3H

The second sequence shows no interest in Game (0 - 8), while the first is a decent (ish) hand and suit. The reason is that the Weak 2 has deprived your side of bidding space. If the opening bids had been 1S - X - Pass, you have room to show a good hand (9+) by jumping to 3? and bidding 2? with anything else (0-8).
This kind of differentiation makes life much easier for partner to make further, correct, decisions later in the auction. And it is of course our prime duty to keep partner well informed and very happy. We cannot play Bridge alone, so we must communicate accurately if partner is to succeed. For partner's success is also our success.

Enjoy

Kit

Monster Mash

We had this  - very rare - monster the other day at the Gazette in Balham:

----
----
AKx
AKQJ9xxxxx

Feast your eyes because you won't see this kind of hand very often. However, you well might, and you should have some idea of how to deal with it. You'll probably find nothing in textbooks, so here goes...
At the table (Both Vul) it was opened 6C! Perfectly reasonable: one loser, 12 top tricks in Clubs.... But the auction then went...
6C - 6S - P - P
7C - P  - 7S - X!
7SX  duly went off 3 for 800 a fabulous save as 7C actually makes (partner having the Q D's!), which would have been 2140! Even 7 off doubled (2000) would have been good for them. So how can we improve on this measly +800?
Looking at the hand again we can see that despite 6 C being cold it only has 17 HCP, thereby disproving that all slams need to have a combined 32+ count! It follows that there are another 23 points dotted around the other three hands. It is also true that if you have a 10 card suit, your opponents may well both have fairly silly hands themselves. They are therefore almost certainly going to join in the bidding themselves. Opening 6C - while perfectly reasonable - does let a rather massive lioness out of the bag. You could try opening 2C - on the grounds that Game is a certainty (!) but they will still be getting into the auction somewhere if they have any blood in their veins. So - what's to do? How can we improve this outcome?
As I said, you only actually have 17 points plus 2 voids. So where are the other points and suits? If partner has them we could get to a possible 7NT. If the opponents have them we don't really want to disclose our full potential too early, do we? What about opening 1C? Will that be passed out? Extremely unlikely. The bidding will come back to you. They WILL be bidding. You will get another chance. By then you should have some idea of what's going on. Plus your softly softly approach opens up the possibility to, as they say, catchee monkey. Take a look at the back of the 7C card. Making is 2140. Doubled and making it's 2330. Redoubled and making it's 2660. Any of these are miles better than 800. Your strategy should be to bid as if YOU are sacrificing against THEM!
1C - 1S - X - 4S
5C - 5S - P - P
6C....
Almost whatever happens now is to your advantage. They pass, you get 1370. They double, you get 1540. (DON'T Redouble!) Most of the time - I venture to suggest - they'll bid again - 6S. Now is the time to hold your nerve. Bid 7C. They might be making 6S. Who can tell? More importantly, you might make 7C. Now - hopefully - you have them. You have sprung the trap. Good opposition may well now bid 7S, and you are back to square one. But there's always the chance you will now be doubled. Still do NOT re-double. It will be impossible for them to visualise that you have such an extraordinary and incredibly rare hand. But if you re-Double you make it a certainty they will bid to 7S because you just told them to. Just make the doubled Grand Slam and quietly write in the score.
This method of bidding weird hands is known as Creeping. It is a standard ploy to get the opponents to feel they have pushed you too far. Instead, you are just where you always wanted to be.

THE RIGHT ATTITUDE

"As I've said before," said Spock, "killing partner is not necessary or helpful. And it ruins the baize..."

"But, but, but.. " said the very large Klingon, dropping his partner, "Twice he didn't continue the suit he led at trick one. We coulda had them down twice. That is not acceptable on my planet. He needs to know my attitude to failure, know what I'm saying?"

"I think he'd rather know your attitude to the suit led, wouldn't he?"

"Huh? Are you implying it's all my fault?"

"Yes that's right I am indeed. You could have an agreement that the card played by opening leader's partner, when not forced to play high, can be an ATTITUDE signal. ie whether or not you want partner to continue that suit when they can. Say partner leads QS against 3NT and you hold 109653 in the suit. If Dummy (or Declarer)  wins the trick, now your card can be attitude showing. The 9 will encourage partner to continue the suit later, and the 3 will be discouraging. Now partner knows what to do. Simple huh?"

"Hmm maybe. But what if you only have one valuable high card to play to encourage with? That's a problem, no?"

"It is indeed. Very well spotted. This is why a lot of players actually play what's called REVERSE ATTITUDE. ie a LOW  card is encouraging, the high one discouraging (Hi hate, Lo like...) In the previous example the 3 would be encouraging. You will of course have to watch every single card partner plays, now won't you? Working out what Declarer has; where's their weakness? In fact, do this anyway: all the time. Otherwise you're only playing half the game."

COUNT YOURSELF LUCKY

I don't see" said Dag the Romulan, "what difference it makes knowing how many of a suit your partner holds. I want to know where their Aces are!"

Spock chuckled to himself. "But what if partner holds no Aces?"

"Then I wanna know about Kings, Queens, whatever. It's all about the big cards anyway."

"Not at all!" countered Spock firmly. "On the contrary there are a lot of situations where you need to know how many of a suit partner has, simply so you can work out how many cards DECLARER has in a particular suit. Think about it. You're defending a slam and at trick 12, you have so far won one trick and need another one to defeat the contract. You now hold  QD and QH, both of which you know to be winners. Declarer leads a Club. Which Queen do you discard? Is it a guess? Do you toss a coin? Is one suit prettier than the other? How on earth can we know?"

"It's always a guess in those situations," said the Romulan. "50 - 50."

"No, " said Spock, "In fact if you play properly with your partner it is NEVER a guess. Why? Because partner should show you the length in each of their suits so it is known to you exactly what Declarer's distribution is, so you know exactly which Q to keep and so defeat the contract. Letting slams slide through is always a disaster."

"How can partner tell me all that without kickin' me under the table? That's ridiculous."

"Very simply. When you follow suit, both of you should always play a High card followed by a Low card to show an even number in a suit. This is called a Peter. Now if you know partner has 2 or 4 in a particular suit, you can see how many you and dummy hold so you can soon tell how many Declarer is likely to hold by subtracting that number from 13."

"What if they hold an Odd number - 3 or 5, say?"

"Then you don't Peter. You play the cards from Low to High instead."

It's a good idea to train yourself to do this all the time - in every suit. So it naturally becomes a habit to count out Declarer's shape. Then you'll never have to guess again which Q to keep!

ENTERPRISE ATTACK

Three weeks out from Arcturus V, Spock was mentoring the Enterprise Team for the Intergalactic Pairs Championships. His message was simple:

"Let us not think of defence: let us think of attack. Attack is the best form of defence.  In any battle in military history the side with greater teamwork will triumph. You must work together with partner - not alone in magnificent but ultimately doomed isolation.

When we lose an auction one of the opponents becomes Declarer. We must not then subside into a world of dreary defence. We must, in concert with partner, ATTACK the declarer. We have one small advantage. We only have to take care of our own hand; Declarer has to work simultaneously with both his side's hands."

" 'Ang on, 'ang on, 'ang on," interrupted a cockney character who only appears in the background of Episode 6 (Mudd's Women)  " 'Ow come, guvnor, it's easier for us who can only see one 'and? I'd ravver see two anyday, know what I mean?"

"But you can see two hands. You have the advantage that you can see one of the Declaring sides hands. The declarer, on the other hand, can see neither of your defensive - sorry, attacking - hands. Therefore you and your partner can communicate in subtle underhand ways. You can pass information, like secret policemen, about what you hold in each suit so you may thwart Declarer."

"I s'pose, " chirped the cockney, "that'd be the Thwart Police, eh?"

"An interesting example of Earth humour. However, my intention is to enlighten you on the Three Paths of Signalling. And these three Paths are: Count: Attitude and Suit Preference. With these three weapons we can wreak havoc against the citadel of The Contract.

That's all for now. I shall be taking a break in the Holo-Deck, but on my return I will endeavour to show you how to walk the Three Paths of Signalling.

Live Long and Prosper!"