[Syl20]

Hi,
I would like to know your favourite defense when opponents dare interfere over your strong club opening.

Sylvain

[helene_t]

Just double them for penalty. Most of the time they go for 800 or something. Last week we had +1100 on a board where we couldn't make game ourself

No, seriously I don't have experience with different defenses so I wouldn't know what's best. We recently had a poll about what defense you would play with a pick-up partner, it turned out that most prefered the classic Precision nebolous negative double and GF freebids. I have the feeling that a more narrowly defined negative double, in combnation with Lebensohl or similar, would be better.

[Chamaco]

I play over natural interferencein 2nd hand:

1C-(INTERFERENCE)- ?
Responder's bids:

- nonforcing, invitational non-jump freebids (even 1NT) at the 1-2 level
- jumps to 2H/S show the seminegative "weak 2" handtype
- 3-level freebids always show a very good suit GF
- 2NT is always 2-suiter, "unusual"
- 4m is always "Leaping Michaels"
- Double can be:
...- invitational+, classical takeout/neg dbl shape (side 4cM, support in other suits)
...- invitational, balanced, but cannot bid 1NT because lack of stopper
...- any GF hand that has no good suit to jump into, nor 2suiters
-cuebid at the 2 level shows 5+ cards in the suit, to uncover psyche; however, as these psyches are rarely made at the 2 level, a cue of a 2-level overcall is "Michaels".

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You need agrements also for opener's rebid if 4th hand interference or in balancing seat after 2nd hand interference:

1C-(pass)- 1D-(INTERFERENCE)- ?
1C-(INTERFERENCE)- pass-(pass)- ?

I play the following opener's rebids :

- nonforcing, non-jump freebids at the 1-2 level
- 1NT is natural, showing a about 18-20 (in balancing seat even a good 17, if NV)
- jumps show extras with good suit
-cuebid at the 2 level shows 5+ cards in the suit, to uncover psyche; however, as these psyches are rarely made at the 2 level, a cue of a 2-level overcall is "Michaels".
- 2NT is always 2-suiter, "unusual"
- 4m is always "Leaping Michaels"
- Double can be:
...- competitive with classical takeout/neg dbl shape (side 4cM, support in other suits)
...- any hand with extras (say 19+) that has no good suit to jump into, nor 2suiters


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Conventional defenses vs strong club are another ballgame.
You'll need some meta-agreements.
In this area, I am curious to hear from other strongclubbers :-)

[Gerben42]

If they interfere artificially with 1NT or higher: double to set up a forcing pass situation to whack them.

If they interfere with 1♠ or less: don't care what it means.

[Free]

I had an interesting idea when opponents intervene with 2-level bids: use Rubelsohl! Since most 1♣ openers are minimum and balanced, this should work out just fine in most situations.

Over interference at 1-level, we keep using relays, and immediatly showing semipositives, GF and double-negatives. Has worked out fine so far.

[david_c]

I'm not a fan of relays after interference, because they're likely to get messed up if 4th seat can bounce the bidding. Having said that, we do play most of our usual relay system when opponents double or overcall 1♦, for the sake of simplicity.

When they overcall specifically 1♥ or 1♠, I like playing two-under transfers (which we discovered on this forum a while back). The way we currently play it is that 1NT, 2♣, 2♦ and 2OM are transfers to diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs respectively, promising at least semi-positive values. The basic idea is that opener completes the transfer with a minimum balanced hand, or bids step 1 with a minimum misfitting hand. (Other bids are forcing to game.) If their overcall is natural, then the transfer to their suit becomes an artificial game force, usually showing a balanced hand.

I suppose you could do a similar thing over higher overcalls, but it doesn't fit together as nicely as over 1M, so we've been playing natural methods.

[Al_U_Card]

Okay, since I don't play strong 1 C but I do play against it, what are your suggestions to deal with this interference system?

DBL= majors
1D=single suited hand, any suit with opening hand values
1H=H and a minor
1S=S and a minor
1NT= minors
2C/H/D/S= preempt.

[awm]

My preference is the following:

Free bids (including NT) = natural and game forcing
Double = takeout (if their bid is natural, or shows/often shows the bid suit) 5+ hcp unlimited
Double = cards (if their bid is totally artificial) 5+ hcp unlimited
Pass = any 0-4, or 5-8 with length in opps suit if their bid is natural, or maybe a "trap pass"
Jumps = transfers to the next higher suit, with a shapely semi-positive

I find that the takeout double is much easier to bid over than a nebulous "semi-positive" double, and lose very little by passing with 5-8 and the wrong shape to takeout (often opener balances, or they are in the wrong spot, etc). Methods like lebensohl are on after the takeout double.

Over very low interference (like double or 1♦) we tend to just ignore it and play systems on.

My observation has been that bidding at the one level doesn't really do anything to strong clubbers. At times it actually helps them sort things out. Completely crazy two-level bidding often leads to bad results as well, since you can be doubled for a number, or the points may be relatively evenly divided when you find yourself in a ridiculous partial. What I've found to work, is to basically bid one more than you might normally (i.e. 2-level preempts on good 5-card suits, 3-level on good 6-card suits).

[card_judge]

Interference over big club pairs can be challenging only to a pair that does NOT have good agreements concerning interference. The better the pair and the longer they have been playing will determine whether or not it is wise to interefere.

Those that have very good interference agreements will pound on the opposition given the law of averages. Yes you may get a good board now and again. In my partnership when you interfere you actually increase the bidding room thereby giving us more opportunity to describe our hands.

Bidder be wary.

But a couple of things: [a] 3rd level preempts and higher do make it difficult, no doubt, but you run the risk of going down a telephone number yourself! [b] good defensive schemes also create anti-defensive schemes.

Good luck.

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[Free]

Hi card_judge, welcome to the forum!

card_judge, on Sep 9 2005, 02:38 PM, said:

In my partnership when you interfere you actually increase the bidding room thereby giving us more opportunity to describe our hands.

I wonder what kind of poor structure you use if intervention improves you possibilities How can you get more bidding space when partner opens 1♣ and RHO intervenes with any 2-level bid??

Also, the question wasn't if you're able to handle intervention, but HOW you do it. Could you plz describe how you get your extra bidding space?

[card_judge]

Free, on Sep 9 2005, 09:24 AM, said:

I wonder what kind of poor structure you use if intervention improves you possibilities    How can you get more bidding space when partner opens 1♣ and RHO intervenes with any 2-level bid?? 

Also, the question wasn't if you're able to handle intervention, but HOW you do it.  Could you plz describe how you get your extra bidding space?

Sure the structure is a rather simple one created by a regular BBO player much smarter than either my partner or me. I just took the notes and with some instruction/guidance adopted it.

We have used it on several occasions when opponents have chosen to interfere and has proven effective for us. This is not to say we have perfected it but our results were better than average on those boards, across the field. Is that to say we would have been top without interference, there is no way of knowing.

Basically it is based on modifying DOPI / ROPI principles. Using your example here is one of the simplest methods:

1♣ - 2(any) - p = 0-4 hcp (X would be 5-7 w/ 5 card suit or 8+ S/ 4 card suit)
opener X = asks partner specifically about the suit quality below the interfering bid disregarding the NT strain. A suit bid is natural while a jump is natural w/ 19+ w/ GF values; double jumps (and not game) are 22+ and 100% GF telling partner to do the right thing.

For a little better description try this:

1♣ - P - 1N(8+ hcp & 5+♠) - X

Now if opener XX it asks responder specifically about the suit quality in ♥ where a P by opener asks responder specifically about the suit quality in ♦ actually backing up (increasing, recovering or extra) the bidding room with only a minor hinderance from the opposition. We still have not moved past 1NT and are asking about other suits. Hence XX is back one and P is back 2 (ROPI)

Bear in mind this is only 2 very small paragraphs of how it is accomplished. The whole bidding structure on interference takes several typewritten pages with many different scenarios.

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