Tag Archives: Overcalls

Fun Freak Hand

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I saw this on BBO. Put yourself in 4th seat (both sides vulnerable). Your right hand opponent opens with a weak two spades in 3rd seat. What is your thinking holding this nice hand?


Some Considerations:

  • How many tricks can your side take and what is the likely outcome?
  • What do you think is your best tactic in anticpation of a competitive auction?

 

What’s your call? See below for my recommendation and postmortem on the hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You count a probable 11 tricks in hearts and clubs. All partner has to have is one ace. The only ace that might not be helpful is the ace of spades. I recommend bidding 3 spades, a michaels cuebid describing a big hand containing hearts and an unknown minor.

That’s the good bid made by the player I observed on BBO. Unfortunately, it was partner who held the unlikely ace of spades. Misfortune was compounded when opening lead wasn’t a spade. Instead it was the ace of diamonds, and opponents quickly took the other two aces for down one. Sadly it was the only table at which a spade was not led. A future post will discuss the opening lead.

 

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: , , , , ,

What’s your call?

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You are in 2nd seat (none vulnerable). Right hand opponent opens one diamond. What is your call with this nice hand?

Decide what you would do and see below for my recommendation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You could pass, double, overcall one heart, overcall 2 clubs. Pass seems a bit too timid. Double implies a tolerance for spades as well as hearts. Overcalling one hearts usually promises a five-card suit. Overcalling two clubs promises at least five of them.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

Overcall?

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It’s often a good idea to make an overcall at the one level. It usually helps partner get off to a good lead if you end up on defense. You may even find a safe partial contract, game, or sacrifice in a competitive auction. Overcalls interfere with opponents’ communication, particularly if the overcall is one spade. Overcalls don’t necessarily promise an opening hand. They are in the range of a good eight to seventeen points with most of the strength in the overcalled suit.

Here is a hand I do not recommend for an overcall:

overcall1D

Opening bid by right hand oppenent is one club. Do not overcall one diamond with this hand. Your stength is not in the diamond suit, so it would be misleading to partner. Moreover, it does not interfere with the opponents. They will have no problem finding a major suit fit if there is one.

Recommendation: When opponents open one club, do not overcall one diamond unless you have an opening hand. Make sure you discuss this with partner when going over your convention card.

 

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Interesting and Fun Hand

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Here is a fun, freak one (at least from my side’s perspective). I was sitting South:

freak

I opened preemptive 2 diamonds in 2nd seat. That may be a bit too conservative, but the vulnerability worried me. West overcalled two spades. Partner jumped to five diamonds at her 1st turn. East bid five spades  My hand was suddenly much improved because of the fit, so I furthered my own preempt by bidding six diamonds. West doubled, ending the auction.

Check our partner’s hand on opening lead!

freak1

The play went quickly. I won the second trick, drew trump in two rounds, and claimed for plus 1540.

West may have been too undisciplined with her two spades overcall. Here was her hand:

freak2

 

 

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Overcall?

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Your right-hand opponent opens the bidding one diamond, and you must decide what to do with this nice hand (none vul):

overcall1S

Your hand seems too good to pass. An overcall of 1NT seems to be out of the question absent a stopper in diamonds. A takeout double might work, since you have tolerance for the majors. But partner will think you have four hearts. Keep in mind that partner and left-hand opponent likely have no more than 11 points between them.

How about overcalling one spade with that powerful 4-card suit? That gets you into the auction with little risk. It also gives partner encouragement to lead a spade if LHO gets the contract.

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Hard to Put on the Brakes

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It was hard for NS to put on the brakes on this hand:

no brakes

 

South decided to make the takeout double rather than overcall with his nice hand. When his rebid was two spades, he confirmed a big hand. North was broke and signed off in three diamonds, which went down two.

I suggest South could have done better by overcalling one spade at 1st turn. In retrospect the Q 8 of hearts should be downgraded, and there is too much uncertainty about finding a spade fit. The overcall will get that cleared up immediately. (It’s, of course, easy for me to say all this when all four hands are visible!)

Be careful not to fall in love with your hand when RHO has opened the bidding. Your partner is unlikely to have much help.

Notice the difference between this auction and the auction in my last two posts (here and here) on this hand. This time East chose not to open 1NT while holding a five-card major. Opening 1NT with a five-card major works out most of the time in opinion of experts. But this time the major suit opening bid worked out better for EW.

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Another Competitive Auction

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comp4

comp5

comp6

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call, Interesting Hands | Tags: , , , ,

A Competitive Auction

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Here is an example of a competitive auction, and the thought process involved in it:

comp1

comp2

comp3

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

What’s your call?

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no overcall

 

 

losers

 

Remember not to forget that there is a pass card in the bidding box.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags:

Takeout Double, Overcall or Pass?

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You are in 4th seat and the bidding goes pass, pass, one club to you. This hand looks too good to pass:

TO double

What’s your call?

Two clubs is not possible, since it would be Michaels promising 5-5 in the majors. Possibilities are a 1NT overcall, a 1 heart overcall, or a takeout double. Which choice do you think is best and why?

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A two-suited hand

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Here is an interesting hand from yesterday. South opened one heart in 3rd seat. West overcalled two diamonds with a nice 5-5 holding in the minors, correctly bidding the higher-ranking suit first. North passed, and East found it difficult to act with a doubleton diamond and five cards in South’s suit.

unusual1

 

In the postmortem EW noticed their club fit. The hand would easily make six clubs their way. How do they find the club fit?

Had EW been playing the unusual 2NT convention, West would jump to 2NT rather than overcalling two diamonds. The jump to 2NT over an opening bid of one of a suit shows 5-5 in the two lower ranking unbid suits (diamonds and clubs in this case). It’s a useful convention that helps overcome situations like yesterday’s dilemma. Check out the link for guidance on how best to use unusual NT and how to respond to it.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

Whose hand is it?

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You are South holding this hand:

whose2

East deals and opens one spade. You pass (good call). LHO responds three clubs (alerted as a spade raise in the 8-10-point range, promising at least four spades). Your partner now overcalls three hearts and RHO tries to sign off at three spades.

It’s your call. Here is a summary of the auction:

whose3

What action do you take? First things first, how good is your hand in the context of the auction so far? Your partner has a nice hand with at least six hearts, so you have at least a 10-card heart fit. Opponents have minimum of 9-card spade fit, leaving partner with three or fewer spades. That singleton is a nice feature. Your other nice feature is the ace of diamonds. It looks like partner has at least nine tricks in hearts – 6 hearts, two spade ruffs and the ace of diamonds. Maybe your clubs will help her bring home a club trick. Time to be optimistic. Don’t give in to three spades. Bid four hearts.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

A One Diamond Overcall?

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I recently observed this hand:

bad overcall

RHO opened one club in 1st seat and this hand overcalled one diamond. That’s an overcall that has nothing to gain and much to lose. It’s a lousy nine point hand. It does not interfere at all with opponents’ search for a golden major suit fit. It encourages partner to lead a diamond if LHO becomes declarer, ugh. Sure enough LHO became declarer and parter led a diamond, giving the opponents a top board.

My recommended partnership agreement is that a one diamond overcall be lead-directing with at least an almost opening hand. Overcalling with the junk above leaves partner with too much guess work about whether to compete or double for penalties.

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Balancing in Direct Seat

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In 2nd seat (none vul.) you hold:

balance1

RHO opens the bidding one club, taking away your opening bid. You wisely (in my view) decide to pass and await developments. LHO responds one heart, partner passes and RHO raises to two hearts. It’s your turn. Is it time for you to come into the auction? If so, what’s your bid?

It sounds like the opponents have found a heart fit of at least eight cards. That means your partner will have at most a doubleton in hearts, leaving at least 11 spaces in partner’s hand that can contain spades. Mike Lawrence gaves us the insight that you likely have a spade fit (because of the distributional value implied by your three little hearts!). You should pre-balance by bidding two spades. You likely have a fit, you’re only at the two level, and your high cards in the minors look like they are working.

Here is an earlier post in which I did not quite satisfy the logic for balancing in direct seat.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

It’s Your Call

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You are in 4th seat (vul vs not vul) and player on your right opens one Spade. What action are you going to take with this unbalanced hand?

bid2

You could pass, but that doesn’t seem right with all that playing strength (those little spot cards are going to take tricks in a minor suit contract). You could overcall two diamonds, planning to bid clubs at your next turn. That’s what I did.

Also, I could have made an unusual notrump overcall of 2NT, promiising at least 5-5 in the minors (two lower unbid suits). What would you do?

I will follow up on this problem tomorrow.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

What’s Your Call?

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You are in 4th seat (both vul) and player on your right opens one club! What action are you going to take with this nice hand?

bid1

It sure looks like passing is a bad idea this time. But a double will surely elicit an advance in hearts, and that’s not what you want to hear. You cannot overcall two clubs, because partner would interpret that as Michaels. How about an overcall in one of your two 4-card suits?

Rate the following alternatives for your action:

  1. Make an overcall of one diamond
  2. Make an overcall of one spade
  3. Make a takeout double
Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

Yesterday’s Game and Lesson

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Hi, all:

We had another fun discussion of opening bids at yesterday’s lesson. I follow that up here with a post mortem on the game itself. It’s all about opening bids. Enjoy.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: , , , , ,

Four Hands on Bidding

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See my updates for each hand below

Here are four hands from Sunday. 1st hand is from board 11:

You are South as dealer and pick up this hand with only 4 points, but it has 11 cards in the majors!

south11

You pass, hoping that partner has something.

The bidding goes:

bid11

How do you plan to advance your side of the auction from here?

Harry’s recommendation: your diamond void is a nice feature. Plan on bidding your majors in natural order, meaning the longer suit (hearts) first. A four point hand suddenly looks like a game force.

2nd hand is from board 16:

As dealer (vul. vs nonvul.) you pick up the following hand:

south16

You and partner are playing preemptive weak twos in the 5-10 HCP range. What is your call?

Harry’s recommendation: It looks overly optimistic to think your spade suit is going to provide the necessary 4 tricks vulnerable.  Pass!

3rd hand is from board 22:

Your right-hand opponent deals and opens the bidding one heart. What is your call holding?

hand22

Harry’s recommendation: Overcall one Spade. This hand is too good to pass, and your three little hearts make it more likely that partner will have a fit for you in spades. (HT: Mike Lawrence)

4th hand is from board 24:

As dealer you open the bidding one heart (none vul.) holding:

hand24

After two passes, right-hand opponent overcalls two clubs. You know your partner has fewer than six points. What do you say next to describe your huge hand?

Harry’s recommendation: Two alternatives here. With some of my partners I would cue bid three clubs. With others (who prefer to “bid where you live”) I would jump to three hearts to describe my big hand.

 

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: , ,

Allan on two interesting hands

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The first is board 1 from Wednesday the 14th:

bd1 Wed 8 14

Allan commented:

Board 1.  Assume bidding starts 1D 2C .  How does south express his holding?  Be aware that direct 2S is strong and forcing 1R.  Negative X and intending 2S seems suitable; if (west passes and) opener rebids 2D, then what? If west raises to 3C and south becomes balancer, then what?  [Note – negative free bids allows initial 2S by south.]

My comment: South has 10+ points in context of the auction so far. Why shouldn’t South respond 2S? South’s hand looks strong enough to me.(I don’t usually don’t play negative free bids.) Maybe I need a stronger hand to make a 2 over 1 response when my suit is higher ranking than the one partner opened? Any thoughts from the thousands of awesome bridge players reading this?

The second is board 8 from Wednesday the 14th:

bd1 Wed 8 14b

Allan asks:

Assume P 1C X P / 1H .  North’s next call is either P or 2C.  How vigorously does E raise hearts?

What do you think? I would bid 3H in response to East’s take out double. With 5 hearts to the J 10 8, ace of spades, and singleton club it looks like 9 support points.

I held the East hand and chose to bid 2H rather then double at my first opportunity. NT looks out of the question because of East’s awful holding in clubs. I thought the smallest lie was 2H with the top three honors (so good it looked like a 5-card suit to me). We did not have any trouble reaching 4 hearts once my partner raised me.

 

 

 

Category: Interesting Hands | Tags: ,