February 2021 - 51

Newer Players

Ask Jerry
BY JERRY HELMS

askjerry@jerryhelms.com
jerryhelms.com

Hi Jerry,
I held:

a typical holding for a 2 bid in this auction might be:

K 10 6	 A K 10 2	 Q 6 4	 A Q 2.

7	

My RHO opened 1. I overcalled
1NT, and partner passed, holding:

The point is, the only strong action
responder can make after an overcall is
double. New suits are absolutely nonforcing and a desire to play that contract
at that level.
Bulking up your notrump overcalls
to 15+ to 18 helps slightly decrease the
probabilities of a penalty double.
With your holding, I would clearly have
overcalled 1NT. To double first, and then
bid 2NT over any two-level advance by
your partner, which by the way, could be
on 0 HCP, does not remotely appeal to me.
Another bit of bridge theory: I think advancer should always be more aggressive
towards game after a notrump overcall
than responder should be after a 1NT
opening bid.
When you open 1NT, and you reach
3NT on an uncontested auction, the
opponents often have 14-15 points, the
location of which you have no clue. Contrast that to an overcall of 1NT and you
reach game with your 25 HCP. Methinks
declarer should be able to play the hand
much better since he knows the location of most of the missing high-card
strength. In addition, depending on the
suit he overcalled, he often has valuable information about the shape of his
RHO's hand. Consider this holding:

7 3	

7 6 3	 A K 9 8 7	

9 5 4.

When the smoke cleared, I had collected 12 tricks for an above average
result. Partner was adamant that I
should double and then bid notrump
to show my 18 points and we would
reach game. Would you assess the
blame for missing this game?
Mr. Aggressive
Hi M.A.,
Your question brings up several good theoretical points about defensive bidding.
Although I advocate opening 1NT on 14+
to 17, I equally advocate that an overcall
should be defined as 15+ to 18. Perhaps
the biggest reason for this is that if you
open 1NT, and most of the outstanding
values are scattered between the opponents, you could be in real trouble, but
neither of them can diagnose it. Contrast
that to when your RHO opens one of any
suit, and you overcall 1NT, and your LHO
is looking at 10 or more points. It doesn't
take much math skills for him to realize
you are in deep trouble! Assuming his
partner has 12 or more points, he has 10
points, and you have at least 15, leaving
dummy nearly pointless. In this auction:
	

1x	

1NT	

Dbl

the double by responder is 100% penalty.
It is not negative; it does not define any
particular shape, but simply announces
the hand belongs to our side. Some of the
most lucrative penalized contracts occur
on this type auction. Just for clarification, if the auction started:
	

1	

1NT	

2

	
	

Q J 10 8 5 4	

Declarer	
AJ95	

5 2	

J 7 4 3.

	
	

Declarer	
Dummy
K 3 2		 7 6 5

No information? You may have three
losers. But when you overcall 1NT, you
may be almost certain that RHO holds
this ace and that you can safely lead up to
your king for a trick.
Holding:
K 6 2	 Q 5 3	

K J 10 7 5	 8 3,

if partner opened 1NT, I would invite
game in notrump. If partner overcalled
1NT, I would bid 3NT!
Finally, back to your partner's hand. At
matchpoints, I would pass 1NT. At IMPs,
I would invite a notrump game. As your
result somewhat proves, you did not have
to reach game to get a reasonable matchpoint score, but in a team game, they pay
a real bonus for bidding your games. By
the way, if you took 12 tricks, you played
it extremely well and found the K
onside, the Q J onside, the A onside,
and diamonds behaving normally. But
then again, you probably suspected most
of those cards would be on your right
after the opening bid!

Dummy
K 10 3

With no information from the bidding,
the location of the missing queen is a
toss-up. After an opening bid, depending
on total values, your holding and LHO's
opening lead, you probably have a much
better guess on how to play this suit. How
about this holding?
February 2021 | Bridge Bulletin | 51
http://www.jerryhelms.com
February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2021
