NYU Bridge and Spades Club

Bridge Lessons - Intermediate

The Basics of Overcalling Opponents and the Introduction to Doubles

Lesson 6

General Introduction - OvercallingSo far, we’ve only learnt how to respond to

opener and rebid opener’s hand. Overcalling opponents is another very important aspect of playing Bridge.

Overcalling opponents is the key to snatching partial scores. Sometimes, two highly distributional partnerships may even be fighting over makeable games! Refer to the note on cross-ruffing in Lesson 5 to see how this may be possible.

Overcalling with NTWhen overcalling opponent’s opener, 1NT

still means the same thing – 15-17 points, balancedHowever, you must also hold a stopper in

opponent’s suitThis does not hold if both opponents have bid.

1NT after opponents’ opener and response would be the sandwich NT, which will be taught in future

Overcalling opponent’s weak 2 opener with 2NT shows the same thing as a 1NT opener, but sometimes with 18 points and with a good stopper in opponent’s suit

Overcalling with SuitsA non-jump overcall at the 1-level shows

10+ points and 5+ cards in your suitA non-jump overcall at the 2-level shows an

opening hand and 5+ cards in your suitA non-jump overcall at the 3-level shows

either a distributional opening hand or a strong hand and 6+ cards in your suit

For more details on jump-shift overcalls, refer to Lesson 7 – Pre-empting

1-2-3 stopIt is not uncommon to see two partnerships

fighting over partial scores. The 1-2-3 stop convention comes into play here (only for major suits)(opponents’ bids are in red)E.g. 1S – 2S – 3S. 3S is not invitational. It is meant

to make it hard for opponents to balance (another lesson) or compete.

E.g. 1H – 1S – 2H – p – 3H. 3H is meant to stop the 1S bidder from possibly showing his hand further by bidding 2S. S is the boss suit here (stronger suit) so 1-2-3 stop becomes especially useful in such a situation.

Responder must not bid again unless making a penalty X of opponent’s bid. So what’s doubling? Read on…

General Introduction - DoublingThe double is the X card in your bidding box while the

redouble is the XX cardYou are only allowed to X opponents’ bids and XX opponents’ X

The traditional use of doubles has been to double the stakes i.e. you double an opponent’s bid if you don’t think he can make and want him to lose (approximately) double the number of points and you redouble and opponent’s X if you think you can definitely make it

However it generally does not make sense to X an opponent’s bid at the 1 level, for example – it almost never goes down! Later in this lesson, we’ll see how to make use of X at lower levels. First, we’ll see how penalty doubles (traditional doubles) and redoubles workThe other uses of redoubles will be detailed in a later lesson

Points System with Doubling (Undertricks)

Non-vulnerable Vulnerable

No X X XX No X X XX

-1 50 100 200 100 200 400

-2/-3 50 200 400 100 300 600

-4 or more

50 300 600 100 300 600

This table details the number of points a partnership loses per undertrick. E.g.Going down 3 doubled in a non-vulnerable state will lose you 100+200*2 = 500points, while going down 4 redoubled in a vulnerable state will lose you 400+600*3 = 2200 points!

Points System with Doubling (Making/with Overtricks)When calculating the score of a made doubled

contract, we first double the trick pointsQuadruple the points for a redoubled contract

Then, we recalculate the level and see if there is an applicable game level bonusYou cannot get slam or GS bonuses from

doubled/redoubled contractsEvery doubled contract made gains 50 points

(“insult” bonus) and every redoubled contract made gains 100 points

Every overtrick in a doubled contract makes 100 points (NV) or 200 points (vul)Double these bonuses for redoubled contracts

Point System with Doubling (Making/with Overtricks)Example 1: 2H= vs 2HX=2H= yields 2*30+50 = 110 points normallyHow many points will 2HX= yield?

First we double the trick points: 2*(2*30) = 120Then we recalculate the level. 2H doubled is

essentially 4H so there is a game level bonus to add: 300 if non-vulnerable, 500 if vulnerable.

Add a 50 point “insult” bonusNo overtrick points to addThus 2HX= yields 120+300+50 = 470 points NV

or 120+500+50 = 670 points vul

Point System with Doubling (Making/with Overtricks)Example 2: 1C+2 vs 1CXX+21C+2 yields 20+2*20+50 = 110 points

normallyHow many points will 1CXX+2 yield?

First we quadruple the trick points: 4*20 = 80Then we recalculate the level. 1C redoubled is

essentially 4C so there is no game level bonus to addAdd a 100 point “insult” bonus2 overtricks will yield 2*200 = 400 points NV or

2*400 = 800 points vul Thus 1CXX+2 yields 80+100+400 = 580 points NV

or 80+100+800 = 980 points vul

Other Uses of X – Takeout XDoubling opponent’s suited (not NT) opener

shows an opening hand with support for all the other suitsIn general, if opponent opened a major, a takeout

X promises at least 4 cards in the unbid majorIf you have a very strong hand but only 1 or

2 long suits, you can choose to bid takeout X first, then clarify your hand later by bidding your suit

Takeout X is a forcing bid unless partner is very long in opponent’s suit or if your LHO bids before partner

Takeout X works for all suited (not NT) opening bids through 4H except 2C

Other Uses of X – Negative XAfter partner’s opener, if RHO bids, you

have an extra tool at your disposal – the negative X

The negative X shows 4+ cards in all unbid majorsNegative X at 1 level: 6+ pointsNegative X at 2 level: 10+ pointsNegative X at 3 level: opening hand

Exception: after 1H-1S, negative X shows 4-4 minors or better. Points system still applies.

Extension of Negative XAfter opponents’ opener and response with

partner passing in the middle, X means 5-4 or better in the two unbid suitsNegative X at 1 level: 8+ pointsNegative X at 2 level: opening handE.g. LHO opens 1C, partner passes, RHO responds

1S. X here shows 8+ points and 5-4 or better in hearts/diamonds

With this negative X, we will then usually consider suit overcalls of opponents’ opener and response to show 6+ cards and 10+ points instead of just 5+ cardsE.g. LHO opens 1C, partner passes, RHO responds

1H. 1S here shows 6+ spades and 10+ points