August 2019 - 58

Advanced Players

Bidding Matters
BY KAREN WALKER

kwbridge.com

Contest their notrump? - part 8
How do you bid a "weak freak" when
your opponent opens a strong 1NT?
Here's one that tested the judgment of
players in a national tournament years
ago:
Neither side vulnerable at matchpoints, your right-hand opponent
opens 1NT (15-17). What's your call
holding:
♠- ♥2 ♦9 7 5 4 ♣A Q J 10 9 8 7 6?
My partner overcalled 5♣ and was
doubled by his LHO, who held a balanced 13-count. I put down a disappointing dummy:
♠J 10 7 6 2 ♥Q J 10 8 ♦J 10 3 ♣2,
and we were down three for minus
500. The opponents had 28 high-card
points and two 4-4 major-suit fits, but
couldn't even make a game.
Over in another section, my friend
Tod held the long-club hand. Before
the session, his partner (my husband
Mike) had taught him the DONT
notrump defense, which uses an overcall of 2♣, 2♦ or 2♥ to show that suit
and a higher-ranking one. When his
RHO opened 1NT, Tod decided to try
out his new convention and overcalled
2♣.
The 1NT opener's partner doubled
2♣ and, holding my hand, Mike redoubled to tell Tod to bid his second suit.
Tod, however, had forgotten what the
redouble meant, and really didn't care.
The 1NT opener passed to see where
Tod would run, but Tod passed, too. He
scored up plus 560 and declared that

58 Bridge Bulletin August 2019

he loved this convention.
An 8-4 hand is hardly what DONT
creator Marty Bergen had in mind
for a two-suited overcall. The difference between Tod's approach and my
partner's, though, offers a good lesson
about how to bid wildly distributional
hands in these auctions.
On most deals, it's good preempting strategy to bid immediately to the
maximum safe level. One way to make
that decision is to apply the Rule of 2,
3 & 4. It advises that you can preempt
two levels higher than your playing
tricks when you're red vs. white, three
tricks higher at equal vulnerability and
four tricks higher when white vs. red.
If you rely only on that rule, 5♣
seems about right. Your hand is counted as five losers and eight winners, so
at equal vulnerability (Rule of 3), the
11-trick level is ostensibly safe.
This is a guideline, not a guarantee.
The reason the Rules of 3 and 4 deem
those overbids safe is that they presume partner will have a trick for you.
On average, he probably will, but the
odds go down when an opponent has a
strong balanced hand. The worst case,
which happened here, is partner will
have tricks on defense, but nothing to
help you.
Another consideration is the auction so far. Preempts are most effective when your opponents haven't yet
exchanged information. If you were
the opening bidder - or even if your
RHO had opened one of a suit - 5♣

would be a better gamble. Over a strong
1NT, though, you're at a disadvantage
because your LHO already has such a
good picture of his partner's strength
and distribution.
The main drawback of 5♣ is that,
safe or not, it actually consumes too
much space. Your goal in preempting
is not just to declare and get a smaller
minus score than their game. You're
also hoping you'll cause them to miss
their game or slam or, best, that they
misguess and you get a plus score. For
that to happen, you have to give them
room to make a mistake.
Your LHO might be tempted to bid
over 3♣ or 4♣, but not at the five level.
If you leap to 5♣, you can be pretty
sure that it will be the final contract,
doubled, with no chance for a better
result. You also have to hope partner
has just the right hand - enough tricks
to keep you from going down three, but
not so many that the opponents can't
make game.
Whether Tod's 2♣ overcall was a
misuse of his convention or strategic
brilliance, it worked better than blindly
following the Rule of 3. When you have
a preempting opportunity over their
strong 1NT, consider being a bit more
conservative than usual - or maybe,
like Tod, creating some action with a
bid no one else will make. Whatever
alternative you choose, it rates to be
better than blasting to a level that
endplays the opponents into collecting
a big penalty.
◾

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August 2019

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