During my stay in the United States, I have observed many bridge players and came to the conclusion that many of them, including some very good players are very conservative when it comes to overcalls, but they are extremely aggressive once their partners make an overcall. This style is not the winning strategy at the table in most instances. The Italian team wins by using the opposite method.

It’s very hard to win if you are playing against a pair that overcalls on AQ1085, KJ1086, KQ1097 or KJ9853 holdings in any suit without HCP restrictions, while you are almost sure that anyone else in the field or your teammates in the replay won’t overcall with the same hand. Obviously, if this pair makes some bad calls after such an overcall you may win, but if they know what they are doing they will also know when to stop and in the long run you will realize they are robbing you blind.

This is one of the methods which brings success to the Italian team. Any player on the Italian team won’t hesitate to overcall at the one level or even at the two level if they are not vulnerable on a goodish suit or any suit with an unbalanced hand. Not only that, they know very well where to stop.

In order to apply this style, there are simple rules to follow.

One important rule is not bidding NT if the third player has bid.

West                                    North                                    East                                     South

1¨                                       1©                                       1ª                                       ?

South should not bid 1NT even if he has the stoppers. It’s very dangerous to bid 1NT. It’s also dangerous to compete with 1NT. So if the third player has bid any suit or made a negative double, bids by the fourth player should be transfer bids except for jump shifts. A 1NT bid should be artificial (transfer to the unbid minor). If the third player has bid 1NT, a penalty double shouldn’t be considered. Double should show the two unbid suits. This way if we stick to these rules, we also prevent disasters. If you have a partner who bids couple of times after your overcall without a fit, you have no option but to keep your mouth closed. But this way you can’t make lead directing overcalls or compete with many hands.

A player who has 6-8 HCP with a good five card suit shouldn’t hesitate to overcall at the one level and should establish his partnership agreements according to this style. The Italian team intervenes happily enough with KJ9764 spades even though they have no other honor points, and prefers not to come in  with 2ª. Here, we should not be afraid of partner’s further reaction and developments. When the third person bids,if  1NT bid is out of question it resolves all problems. But, they have no desire to intervene with this hand with 2ªand give the opponents a shot at 800 .

TACTICS for TWO LEVEL OVERCALLS at FAVORABLE VULNERABILITY

If we have such holdings in diamond suit as AJ10865, KQ10974 or KJ10962 and nothing else in the other suits, when partner opens up 1ªwe can not bid 2¨ over that with any of them. It’s not that we are not safe at the two level but we are afraid of partner’s possible actions after this point; but if our RHO doubles our partner’s opening or overcalls 1NT with all those hands we should bid 2¨.

With a goodish six card suit and 6 HCP we usually open weak two’s since we know its very good in terms of showing our hand to partner at once and preempting the opponents. But if we have KJ10975 in the spade suit and nothing else we don’t want to open this 2ª, else partner can drag us to game and we will go down for a minus score while the opponents can’t make anything. Anyhow if our partner is a passed hand and our RHO passes, at favorable vulnerability we won’t hesitate to open this hand 2ª.

Likewise if we have KJ10975 in hearts and nothing else, if our RHO opens up 1ª we won’t come in with 2©.But again if partner is a passed hand and our RHO opens up a minor we bid 2© like a shot at favorable vulnerability.

We all make these bids because we know they are useful for us. It’s very good to show our suit quality at the first opportunity but the only problem might be to find a way to stop our partner from bidding on. I personally don’t think this would be a problem and believe that logic will force partner to apply the breaks.

Once we have  agreed on our definitions it would  also be an option just to make a simple overcall with these kinds of good suits. The main point in these situations is that partner knows that the balance of points is probably in favor of the opponents. So if partner takes our overcall as lead directing, doesn’t  push us too high except for  competing with a good fit and doesn’t double the opponent’s possible contracts, we will have no problem.

My opinion is; if a player has a good six-card suit or goodish two suited hand with 4 HCP,he should come in to the auction whenever appropriate.

Obviously if a player has a holding in diamonds such as KQ10965 and his RHO opens 1©, he can’t come in with 2¨, but if lefty opens 1© and RHO bids 2§now he should bid 2¨at favorable vulnerability. Likewise it’s Ok to bid 2ªwith a holding like KJ10874.

These kind of bids gives us the advantage of competing, finding the right opening lead, and once in a blue moon finding an unusual game. There is nothing we can lose.

We should assume that we have been allowed to take one lottery ticket for free. If we hit the jackpot, good for us, else we just throw the free ticket in the trash...

THREE LEVEL OVERCALLS and RESPONSES

When RHO pre-empts at the three- level, we should try our best to overcall if we can, since we can’t win by passing with 13..HCP against an opponent who opened on a six count. It would be wrong to expect to win by passing with hands like (AK10874,62,KJ75,3), (KQ1097,A108,K73,52), (AQJ964,8,K875,63), (AQJ86,K4,Q952,73). Furthermore we could be cold for four of a major but , by not overcalling we might let the opponents make a 3NT contract because partner might not find the right lead. Also,our LHO might have bid a strategic 3NT and we might end up with +50 for one down, instead of +620.

After seeing the big mistakes made in these kinds of situations during the short period I have been playing in Florida, I would like to suggest, my dear friends, that you read Robert Ewen's "Preemptive Bidding". This book is one of the best 20 books written about bridge

Ewen's advice is very simple: If opponents make a preemptive bid and your partner overcalls, discount 8-9 HCP or two tricks from your hand; if you still have a trick left bid the game. Otherwise pass. By the same token, when your RHOopens with a preemptive bid, if in partner's hand you'll make game with two tricks, bid directly game.

I have been using this "two tricks discount" rule for 27 years and I don't remember it ever backfiring. You must not forget that whenever opponents open with a preemptive bid we are at a disadvantage. If partner overcalls 3ª, it is normal to bid 4ª with (742,A863,A64,A75) but more often than not the contract will fail due to a bad break of the trump suit.

In order to cue-bid facing your partner's overcall, you should have good trump support and more than four tricks. With this understanding it will be easy for the overcaller to decide whether to go to slam or not. I am sending you three relevant pages from Robert Ewen's book. You'll see that he advises you to Pass with (J75,AJ4,A853,642) over your partner's 3ª overcall of 3§.

I want to add a hand we played against the Swedish team in St. Louis:

LHO opened 3§, partner overcalled 3© and I passed with (KQ105,10986,K63,Q4). My partner had

(73,AKJ74,J852,AJ) a fairly good hand. On a club lead the contract was just made. On a diamond lead

we would have gone one down.

NEGATIVE DOUBLE

During the last two weeks I incurred some heavy losses due to the application of negative doubles:

I would like to make some comments about this matter after observing two expert player’s totally different behaviour:

In modern bridge after partner’s response if our RHO overcalls at the one or two level we should double to show three card support. Anybody who is familiar with Good/Bad 2NT agrees on this fact. After this point it is unacceptable to not show our four-card support at the two level no matter how weak our hand is. Anyhow if after the negative double our RHO supports the overcalled suit and we need to go to the three level,then with a minimum balanced hand we should wait for our partner to make another Double or bid. Otherwise it’s very likely we will end up in an impossible game. In my opinion, if we don’t use Good/Bad 2NT the best is to show the fit at the three level with a minimum but unbalanced hand. I disagree with the North player’s passing on the second hand, on the first round of bidding, to stop partner making a bad opening lead. With such a distribution even if partner has a minimum hand it’s possible to make a game if partner has the right honors for us. As the famous Hideous Hog of Victor Mollo said:”I don’t wanna defend, I want to play the hand” That’s why we should bid with this hand.

GOOD/BAD 2NT

The application of openers Good/Bad 2NT is not a problem. After a suit opening,whether left hand intervenes or not, if partner makes a negative double, or responds at the same level, and right hand bids a natural 2¨, 2©, or 2ª, Good/Bad 2 NT may be applied. In this spot, repeating the opening bid at the three level , or bidding a new suit shows a very good hand. The opener, with a minimum hand that has a competitive one-suiter  or a 5/5 distribution, and cannot bid at the two level, bids 2NT.  Thereafter, if responder thinks that his hand is not suitable for game, and does not have a special distribution,he should return to the opening suit bid. If 1§ has not been opened, assuming the probability of a 5/5 distribution, he should revert to the longer and cheaper suit and give his partner a chance.

Years ago, when I started using the Good/Bad 2 NT convention, I had problems with responder’s applications. After a period of long analysis, I decided not to use responders 2NT rebid as a game invitation. I decided to use the support double, up to 2ª, and prepared a perfect competitive system which includes the Good/Bad 2NT system.

As a summary:

After you respond with a suit to your partners one level opening, if left hand intervenes with 2¨, 2©, and 2ª and it is passed, round to you or your right hand comes on after passup, Good /Bad 2NT is applicable. If your partner makes a rebid and your right hand passes, Good/Bad

2NT is not applicable.

If the developments allow Good/Bad 2 NT;

- Rebidding the initial suit at the three level, or bidding a new suit  at least five card is a game invitation

- Reverting to the opening bid at the three level shows approximately 11 HCP.

- Cue-bidding at the three level shows a five-card fit to the opening minor bid, and is game forcing

- After forcing the opener to bid 3§ with Good/Bad 2NT, all bids will be to play.

- If the distribution allows it, we can use a competitive double with less HCP. After the competitive

  double is used, rebidding responders suit or bidding a new five card suit is game forcing. Cue-bid

  is accepted as stopper inquiry

- These applications give the responder the chance to play his six card minor at the three level after

  bidding his four card major initially. Also, as it’s known that there is no three-card fit for the

  responders suit,it allows competition in the other five card suit.