[Echognome]

The_Hog, on Jul 9 2005, 05:04 AM, said:

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You are giving away far too much information. If opps get to a slam, they are likely to play the trump suit right.
This happened last Wed when an international in my seat at the other table opened 2NT in first seat nv on x x Kxxxx JT9xxx. Our pds bid to slam and made it by playing the Spades correctly. I passed throughout and our opps went 1 off by playing for S to be 2-2.
<snip>

I take your point about overcalling with a purpose. However *opening* a two-suited hand is a different kettle of fish. Sure, it involves certain risks, but it was a bit unlucky for the pair to preempt, have the opponents still find slam and then have that information give away the crucial suit.

[Winstonm]

The_Hog, on Jul 8 2005, 11:04 PM, said:

The reason I made my last post is that I have spent a LOT of time discussing 2 suited overcalls with all my partners. We have got a very large number of good results from pairs who use 2 suited bids indiscriminently.

For what its worth, an analysis of our results over a period of at least 12 months showed the following:

1) It is a good idea to play specific 2 suited bids - hence we play modified Ghestem, and NO we don't forget it!

2) 2 suited overcalls are best played as either a hand that will genuinely win the contract or a hand that highly wants to encourage a sacrifice. Hence whether you use a 2SO depends on your hand type, the vul, and also what suit the opps opened. eg If pd is a passed hand and the opps open 1S, it is idiocy to bid 2NT on a weak 5/5 minors.

You are giving away far too much information. If opps get to a slam, they are likely to play the trump suit right.
This happened last Wed when an international in my seat at the other table opened 2NT in first seat nv on x x Kxxxx JT9xxx. Our pds bid to slam and made it by playing the Spades correctly. I passed throughout and our opps went 1 off by playing for S to be 2-2.

3) Whatever, the suit quality of both suits should be reasonable, hence the posted hand is a poor example of a 2SO in my opinion.

I find this interesting....guess I'm not as scientific. About the third time I made a so/so 2-suited bid and the opponents brushed it aside and bid game/slam/whatever and played me for 5/5 (Gee, how'd they know?), I said to myself, "This is dumb." Then I began to notice that sometimes it can be hard to get both your suits in with good hands when the oppents open and jam the bidding like with 1H-1S-4H (so now you have to bid clubs/diamonds) and a light bulb came on - If I bid Michael's with that hand I could then double 4H and partner could bid on when right and pass when right - what a concept!

So I came to the same basic conclusions - it's best to know which 2 suits I'm bidding and the bid is either strongly preemptive or a darned good hand. Either way, I want partner to bid the maximum his hand warrants - and oddly enough I've found the usage more frequent with good hands than bad.

WinstonM

[the hog]

"and oddly enough I've found the usage more frequent with good hands than bad."

So have we Winston.

[han]

OK, so 2NT is wrong, and say that we are not playing raptor/ polish 1NT. What call do you make with this hand? I really don't like the 1D overcall. As it is unlikely that we will make another call, I'm completely burying the heart suit. A 1H overcall seems like an even larger distortion. Pass? Yuck!

Need some help here!

[Winstonm]

Hannie, on Jul 10 2005, 03:42 PM, said:

OK, so 2NT is wrong, and say that we are not playing raptor/ polish 1NT. What call do you make with this hand? I really don't like the 1D overcall. As it is unlikely that we will make another call, I'm completely burying the heart suit. A 1H overcall seems like an even larger distortion. Pass? Yuck!

Need some help here!

Seems to me a typical bridge problem - you have to pick your poison and then live with it. For me, I don't go out of my way to look for sacrifices so getting in both suits is not all that important to me. My thinking here is that we are unlikely to hold enough cards to make it our hand, so we won't be outbidding them in the heart suit - either they have spades or partner does and either way that's not good for our side. I only hold a 9 count, so unless something magic happens it's not our hand. The best thing I can do IMO is help partner on defense - by bidding 1D as a lead director. If I never get the heart suit bid that won't be the worst thing that ever happened. It is true that if LHO passes and partner bids it will be difficult to ever find a 5/3 heart fit, but with a minimum hand that has to take forces a 5/3 fit isn't all that wonderful anyway - this is the type of hand that really needs a 5/4 fit before it has real playing stength. So, pick your poison - mine is bidding what I've got while I have a chance - 1D.

WinstonM