Question: Is a response to an overcall by partner forcing? What would you bid on the following hands? Hand 3 and 6 seem to be problematic depending on whether a new suit is forcing or not forcing.
Auction: 1C – 1S – Pass – ?
1. ♠ J102 ♥ 76 ♦ AJ875 ♣ 1073
2. ♠ void ♥ 832 ♦ K1087653 ♣ J73
3. ♠ 94 ♥ AQ10975 ♦ Q7 ♣ 1098
4. ♠ 2 ♥ KJ87 ♦ OJ86 ♣ K1054
5. ♠ 1075 ♥ AK2 ♦ A82 ♣ 8762
6. ♠ 94 ♥ AJ985 ♦ AQ5 ♣ Q7
Answer: Responding to simple overcalls is not the same as responding to opening bids. When the opponents open the bidding and your side overcalls, your expectations tend to be more negative than if your side opened the bidding. Slam is basically out of the question and games your way are rare. Most auctions tend to be competitive, so your side must determine how high you can compete safely; should your side sacrifice if they bid game; and what would be a good opening lead.
For this discussion, I will refer to the overcaller as “partner” and responder as “you”.
There are two basic situations that arise in responding to a simple overcall:
1. a hand with support
2. a hand without support
1. Responding with Support
This is the most common response when partner overcalls. When raising partner’s suit, always assume that partner has exactly five cards in the suit he has overcalled when selecting your response and treat his overcall as if he had opened the bidding. Make a simple raise with 6 to 9 support points. Support points include high-card points plus points added for distribution. With 10 to 12 support points, cue bid the opponent’s suit. This shows a limit raise or better. With a weak overcall, partner will rebid the trump suit at the lowest level. With a minimum opening hand, partner may jump in the trump suit to invite game or make a help suit/short suit game try depending on the game tries the partnership has agreed to play. With extra values, partner will bid game. With 4 to 6 support points and four or more trump, you can make a pre-emptive jump raise.
With more than 12 support points, cue bid the opponent’s suit. Since this shows limit raise values or better, partner will base his rebid on the assumption that you have limit raise values. So with no interest in game, he will rebid the trump suit at the lowest level (a signoff). With 13 to 15 support points cue bid the opponent’s suit and if partner “signs off”, invite game with a simple raise. With more than 15 support points, just bid game over a “signoff”. Note that a cue bid and a jump to game shows additional values whereas a straight jump to game is more pre-emptive.
2. Responding without Support
If you do not have support, but you do have a balanced hand and a stopper(s) in the opponent’s suit, you can bid 1NT, 2NT or 3NT – depending on how many points you have. For 1NT, this bid should show 8 to 11 HCP, 2NT should show 12 to 14 HCP and 3NT should show more. The exact range depends on vulnerability and overcall style.
To bid a new suit, your suit should be 5 good cards or more. The bid issue: is a new suit forcing? It is best to adopt a simple rule for new suits. There are a number of solutions, here are the two most popular:
- New suits by responder are never forcing. In this case, I suggest that a jump response by responder is natural and forcing (he needs some way to show a good hand).
- New suits by responder are forcing (unless responder is already a passed hand).
While Solution 1 looks good, it leads to other questions. If a jump response is forcing, how many points should it promise? Is it forcing to game? Assuming it is forcing to game, partner could be as low as 7 HCP, then a jump should be at least 16 HCP. First, this has taken up bidding space without a possible known fit unless your suit is self-sufficient. Second, a simple response would show a hand ranging from 6 points to 15 points: a very wide range. So if partner has 9+ points, he will have to make some invitational bid and if you have the 6 to 8 point range, the partnership may get too high. Thus, you should have a minimum to bid at the two level; say 10 HCP. So, you could be as light at 6 points for a one level response but as high as 15 points. This would be reduced at the two level to 10 to 15 HCP. This is more manageable.
Another question is should partner rebid again if he does not have a fit foryour suit? Does he pass or rebid his suit with a minimum?
Thus, I prefer Solution 2. A new suit by responder is forcing for one round. With a really good hand, you can then make another forcing call (new suit or cue bid) at your next bid. For responses, you could have 6+ points at the one level but again should have a minimum of 10 HCP to bid at the two level. This leaves the cue-bid as only used when you have a fit for partner.
So given Solution 2’s criteria, let’s look at the 6 hands.
Auction: 1♣ 1♠ Pass ?
1. ♠ J102 ♥ 76 ♦ AJ875 ♣ 1073
2. ♠ void ♥ 832 ♦ K1087653 ♣ J73
3. ♠ 94 ♥ AQ10975 ♦ Q7 ♣ 1098
4. ♠ 2 ♥ KJ87 ♦ OJ86 ♣ K1054
5. ♠ 1075 ♥ AK2 ♦ A82 ♣ 8762
6. ♠ 94 ♥ AJ985 ♦ AQ5 ♣ Q7
- Raise to 2 Spades – fits criteria for a simple raise.
- Pass – too weak to bid. I wouldn’t even bid 3D. I will bid 2D if partner is doubled.
- 2 Hearts – a little light but I will pass if partner bids 2S.
- 1NT – again, fits the criteria
- 2 Clubs – a limit raise in spades
- 2 Hearts – not fond of my suit but I must bid
These are suggestions to make it easier to deal with responding to overcalls. However, as with everything else, you must discuss this with your partner so that you are both on the same wavelength.