[glen]

whereagles, on Mar 2 2006, 10:08 AM, said:

The strategy against a strong club is thus to overcall frequently on 2nd seat and with wide range. As for pard, he should be very conservative raising. With a good hand, just pass and butt-in for the partscore later. This strategy is WAY more important than any convention used.

However this is not the best overall strategy, though is effective.

The best strategy aims to jam opener's rebid. This is done in two ways:
1) Jump bids over the 1♣ opening, taking bidding space away
2) Bids over the 1♣ opening that allow advancer to make a bid that reduces opener's bidding space.

For example of 2), take this auction:
1♣-1♦(natural)-Double(values)-3♦

The 1♦ bid didn't take any bidding space, but the 3♦ did damage. Now, what are the ranges of 3♥, 3♠, 3NT, 4♣ by opener? Does opener go by 3NT with ♣s? How are 5-5, 5-4, 4-5, 5-3, 3-5 in the majors bid now - do some go by 3NT? How does one find 5-3 and 6-2 major fits?

Method 2) can be even harder for opener to bid over with pass or correct possible.

For example:
1♣-1♦(♦s or ♥s)-Double(values)-3♦(Pass or Correct)

Now what is double - is it showing ♦s or takeout of ♦s or just handling hands with values and no other good bid? Does 3NT promise stoppers in both red suits, or a specific one of them?

Almost all schemes over 1♣ allow for jump overcalls on a fairly wide range of hands. However only some schemes provide substantial opportunities for advancer to jam the auction while also sowing confusion.

[whereagles]

Officeglen, your strategy of blocking opener's rebid is simply a variant of the general idea of frequent and random overcalls 2nd seat.

I do agree, however, that 2-suited overcalls enable 4th player to raise the preemption more frequently. But that's not as nearly as important as doing something in 2nd seat, no matter what

[glen]

whereagles, on Mar 3 2006, 01:50 PM, said:

Officeglen, your strategy of blocking opener's rebid is simply a variant of the general idea of frequent and random overcalls 2nd seat.

I do agree, however, that 2-suited overcalls enable 4th player to raise the preemption more frequently. But that's not as nearly as important as doing something in 2nd seat, no matter what

The strategy of blocking opener's rebid by a 4th seat jam is not "simply a variant of the general idea of frequent and random overcalls 2nd seat". That's like saying that two suited overcalls are "simply a variant" of one suited overcalls, or that apples are "simply a variant" of oranges.

"Doing something in 2nd seat, no matter what " - actually what I've seen is that 2nd seat overcalls of 2♦ or less, or double, have no net plus position if advancer can't move these forward, especially to the three level.

So in contrast to your statements, I believe that 4th seat bidding is more important than random bidding by 2nd seat.

[whereagles]

Disagree. I think natural 1-suited overcalls and artificial 2-suited overcalls are simply two tactical ways to implement the same strategy of frequent butt-ins by 2nd player. Yes, it's apples and oranges, but the idea is to eat fruit. If you see what I mean

[keylime]

I agree with Glen here.

Playing strong club for years now, the three things that I feel are most important in defending against it is:

1) Good hands - Many people like passing then bidding to show good playing hands. I personally like bidding it immediately. In either style, it is important to discuss the ramifications of this. The reason why I prefer saying my hand asap is to get pard's input into the auction. They can bid freely knowing I have a reasonable hand opposite them. However, this is definitely a p'ship understanding.

2) Two suited overcalls - I've seen a lot of people that over a 1♣ bid ANY 2 suited defense. I don't think that's necessary the best way to combat Precision; bidding intelligently and having the ability to show a heart or spade suit via naturally or by a transfer bid is imperative. Two suited overcalls should be rather shapely. Any 5-4 isn't enough.

3) Skill level of your opps - This for some reason isn't addressed a lot. I think one of the best tests for a strong club partnership is not how well they bid your slams and games, but how effectively they combat your interference. If they have not invested time into dissecting and preparing countermeasures, then you want to attack them every chance they have. However, if after a hand they have methods that are practiced, then caution is needed - if a p'ship I play against manage the interference and are able to get to where they need to be then I'm much more careful in overcalling.

There are plenty of defenses over a strong club out there. I use Transfer CRO in KLPV16, but in Tangelo it's modified CRASH so that I can bid 1 of a major naturally. Mathe, for all that it's maligned, has enough naturality in it to help reduce the memory load.

[mghmaine]

In a pinch I've had good luck asking partner to just bid 1S.