Basic topics (1)

 

  1. What should you expect from your partner’s Overcall; double or redouble?
    1. We overcall for two reasons

                                                               i.      To compete for the part score

                                                             ii.      To help partner with the lead

If your partner has already passed is it worth overcalling with 10 points and Qxxxx or worse in a suit?  The answer is ‘rarely’.

So you should have between say 8 and 17 points for an overcall.   Try to overcall with at least 5 cards in the major or 6 cards in a minor (especially if vulnerable).

Should you overcall a 4 card suit?   Again the answer is ‘rarely’.   However, over 1 of a minor, consider a lead directional overcall of 1♠ with a 4 card suit if say it is KQJx or AKQx.  Best not to overcall 1♥ with only 4 cards.

 

What about if you are a passed hand?   The answer is that if the opponents stop in a partscore, say 3♠ or below, play double as take out still.   You should agree this with your partner first!!!  See example at the end.

    1. A double should be able to support all the other 3 suits as you are asking partner to bid!   So you should be a minimum of say 4441 or 4405 (where the 5 is a minor) shape and 12 points – if you have more points it is ok to have 3 cards in one of the suits... 4423 and 12 points is ok to double 1♦ if you have 4-4 in the majors.   This means that if you do not have a suitable overcall and even though you have an opening hand you cannot support all the other suits just pass.   You or your partner can usually bid later if appropriate (see balancing).
    2. Redouble, if your partner opens 1 of a suit and the right hand opponent doubles; Redouble from you shows 10+ points.   Ideally it will be short in your partners suit (0-2 cards) as you are indicating that a penalty might be in order.   More on this in and the implications in another lesson.

 

Example:

♠ K1096

♥ K1076

♦ 2

♣ KJ105

♠ Q8543                                  ♠ J2

♥ A53                                      ♥ 82

♦ 87                                         ♦ KQJ9654

♣ A87                                      ♣ 32

♠ A7

♥ QJ94

♦ A103

♣ Q964

 

 

 

How it should go.

N         E          S          W

P          3♦        P!         P

X         P          4♥        All pass

 

You expect a maximum of 24 high card points but now you know quite a bit about the hand.  Your partner is short in ♦ and you have the ace.  Indeed your 2 aces and 2 9s plus a 10 make a jump to 4♥ very attractive.   Even if you bid 3♥ at pairs, your partner should raise with such perfect cards.   Note that on best defence 3♦ X is one down.

 

  1. The law of total tricks (1).

 

This Law is vitally important to understand when pre-empting or competing for the partscore.   Simply put, you are ‘safe’ to bid to the level of your longest fit.

This means that if you know that you have a 10 card fit with your partner it is safe to bid to the 10 trick (4) level.   No mention of points here.   This is not a trick!

If your partner opens a weak 2 and you have 4 card support, consider rasing to the 4 level even if you have no points.   Be a little careful when you are vulnerable and they are not.   Also take care when you are 4333 shape treat it as 3333 shape.

 

Why does this work?   If, the example above, you have a 10 card fit and so do the opposition, the LAW says that if you can make 10 tricks so can they... if you can make only 8 they can make 12... in other words, the total number of tricks available = sums of the fit in the two longest suits.   This is nearly always correct however there are good books on the subject.