September 2024 - 50

Newer Players
Reasoning with Robert
Interfering over opponent's 1NT
W
hen you play an artificial
bidding system against
the opponent's 1NT opening,
you give yourself more ways
to describe your hand, especially
distributional ones. There are many
different systems to choose from (see
our discussion last month of DONT
and Meckwell). One way to categorize
your system is how you use the
double. Some systems use double as
a conventional bid (like DONT and
Meckwell), and other systems use
double as values-showing or penaltyoriented.
Here, we look at one of the
most common systems to use the
double as penalty - Cappelletti.
Cappelletti vs. 1NT openings
The Cappelletti system is one that
many players use because it has conventional
bids that show both onesuited
and two-suited hands while
maintaining the double as penalty.
After 1NT:
* Dbl Penalty (usually a balanced
strong notrump or a strong
shapely hand with one suit)
* 2c Any one-suited hand (six-card
or longer suit)
* 2d Hearts and spades (usually at
least 5-4 distribution)
* 2h At least five hearts and a fourcard
(or longer) minor
* 2s At least five spades and a fourcard
(or longer) minor
With 2h or 2s, you show a fiveCHALLENGE
OF THE MONTH
Dlr: South s A J 10
Vul: None h 10 3
IMPs
d K 7 4 2
c 10 8 7 6
s 9 2
h 9
d A 8 6
c A K Q J 5 3 2
West North East
Pass 1d
South
1c
1h 3c
4h 5c All Pass
West leads the h5. East wins the
hA and returns the h7.
1. Just for drill, how do you place
the missing heart honors?
2. What is your game plan?
continued on page 57
50 | Bridge Bulletin | September 2024
card or longer major and a four-card
or longer minor. But notice, if partner
does not like your major suit and
wants to play in your minor suit, you
are going to be forced to play at the
three level. This is one of the advantages
that DONT/ Meckwell have over
Cappelletti: They allow you to play at
the two level, while Cappelletti sometimes
gets you to the three level. This
means that when you play Cappelletti,
you need to hold better suits or distribution
to bid 2h or 2s.
Another disadvantage of
Cappelletti: You cannot show a long
club suit at the two level. To show a
long club suit, you must either jump
to 3c directly (more preemptive) or
bid 2c (showing some long suit) and
later bid 3c to show a better hand
than jumping to 3c directly.
But Cappelletti does have advantages
over systems like DONT and
Meckwell. One is to punish the opponents
with the penalty double. This
makes Cappelletti a very popular
BY ROBERT S. TODD
robert@advinbridge.com
advinbridge.com
method against weak notrumps (opponents
that open 1NT with 12-14
points, or something similar).
Advancer's bids
If you decide to play Cappelletti,
what is the meaning of advancer's
bids? Let's look at some of the
auctions:
Opener Overcaller Responder Advancer
1NT Dbl
Pass
?
If partner makes a penalty double,
some partnerships like to pretend
like their partner opened the bidding
1NT and use Stayman and Transfer
bids by the advancer ( " systems on " ).
But I am not a fan of this approach.
When partner makes a penalty
double, if advancer has a decent
hand, say 6+ HCP, they are likely to
pass and try to defend 1NT doubled!
But if advancer has a bad hand, 0-5
HCP, then they want to run to their
longest suit, so it's nice to be able to
bid 2c and 2d naturally with a bad
hand - something that you cannot do
if you play systems on.
Opener Overcaller Responder Advancer
1NT 2c
Pass
?
Here, partner has told you they
have a long suit. If you want to know
their long suit, bid 2d (the cheapest
bid) and leave them room to show
their long suit. If you bid a suit of your
own, then you are showing your own
long suit and no interest in partner's
suit. 2NT is also a useful bid, showing
a strong hand, usually balanced, and
making a game try in partner's suit.
Partner can stop at the three level or
go to game in their long suit.
continued on page 62
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September 2024

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