CONVENTIONS FOR THE IMPROVING PLAYER

OK, so now you are comfortable with the basic conventions, but you want to expand your horizons to cover those other mysterious names that appear on the SAYC card. By the end of this course you will be able to play SAYC and feel confident that you can handle just about anything partner springs on you.

• Negative Doubles
• Jacoby 2NT (Game-Forcing Major-Suit Raise)
• Reverse Drury
• New Minor Forcing
• Cue Bid Raises (Of Overcalls And Openings)
• Defences To 1NT
• Help Suit Game Tries (Trial Bids)
• Control Showing Cue Bids And The Grand Slam Force

LESSON ONE

NEGATIVE DOUBLES

THE BRIDGE FORUM INTERNATIONAL

Partner opens the bidding with 1¨ and your RHO overcalls 1ª. You hold:

Had RHO passed you would have bid 1©, but his pesky 1ª overcall has left you with an impossible problem. It doesn't see right to raise partner's clubs with three low ones when he may easily only have three of them too. 1NT is not overly attractive with a spade stopper of three to the nine. Bidding a new suit at the two level not only shows a 5 card suit, but also a better hand than you have. What's left -- pass? That might work, though you will not be well placed if LHO raises to 2© and that is passed back to you. Partner will also find it impossible to compete, as he does not know you have these high cards.

You will have worked out from the subject of this lesson that the answer is a Negative Double. Lucrative low level penalty doubles occur rarely, and yet the kind of problem we have here is all too common. It is important to realize that when you adopt negative doubles you give up your old-fashioned penalty double. As we shall see later, this does not mean you cannot penalize the opponents for reckless overcalls.

The essential message carried by the negative double is, "I have some values, but nothing sensible to say." That seems to describe your situation here admirably. When you make a negative double you imply four cards in any unbid major. In the ideal world, you will also have support for the remaining unbid suit too. If not you will have at least tolerance for opener's suit.

Negative doubles of the kind covered by this lesson occur in only one situation: partner opens with a one level suit bid and the next opponent overcalls in a different suit. Note that negative doubles DO NOT apply if either of these first two bids is in notrump.

Of course, the opponents are not always sufficiently considerate to limit their intervention to the one level. Sometimes they are rude enough to jump the bidding. The level to which you play doubles as negative is up to you (and your partner, of course). You can elect to play them through 2ª (so doubles of three level overcalls are for penalties), or up to 3ª (or even higher).

Earlier, we gave you a dull 3-4-3-3 hand with nine points and said you could make a negative double after partner opened 1§ and RHO overcalled 1ª. You might have been much stronger than this. When the bidding starts 1§-(Pass)-1© opener has no idea whether you have six points or 18 points. Your hand is unlimited. The same thing applies when you make a negative double. Basically, when partner opens with 1§ or 1¨ and RHO overcalls 1ª, if you have four hearts you will start by making a negative double on all balanced hands of about 8+ HCP.

Note that we said you need 8+ points to make a negative double in this auction (because it effectively forces partner to the 2-level). You can bid with a little less (say 6+ HCP or a normal minimum response) when there is space at the 1 level. On the other hand, you need even more (maybe 10+) when you force partner to the 3 level. While high card points are a good guide for deciding whether to bid with relatively balanced hands, factors such as distribution points or a good fit for opener's first suit may reduce the actual HCP requirements.

Let's move on to something more exciting. Consider this problem:

Partner opens 1¨ and RHO butts in with 1ª. What do you bid?

You could start by cue bidding the opponent's suit (2ª), which, as we will learn later in this course, shows a decent hand with diamond support. However, there is no guarantee that you want to play this hand in diamonds. Can partner not have a 4-4-3-2 shape? You certainly prefer to play in a 4-4 major suit fit than a 5-3 minor suit. It costs nothing to start with a negative double. Not only will you find out if partner has four hearts, but you use up less space than you would with any other action. This is the kind of hand on which you are likely to need maximum room to investigate various contracts.

Having seen a negative double on an unbalanced hand, here is a quite contrasting example:

As before, partner opens 1§ and RHO steps in with 1ª. With such a good suit, you really want to bid hearts, but you can hardly bid at the two-level with such poor overall values. (2© is forcing and for that you need at least enough to invite game -- say 11+ points).

Once again, the negative double comes to the rescue. The chances that partner will bid hearts freely are remote, of course. However, if the auction permits, you can introduce the suit yourself having already limited your hand (by your failure to bid 2© immediately).

You hope the auction goes something like:

Of course, if LHO raises spades the bidding may get out of hand with the result that you never get to bid your suit. Even then though, you are no worse off than you would have been had you passed.

When the majors are reversed (RHO bids hearts and you have spades) things are slightly different since his overcall has not taken away your bid. In this case, with the aid of negative doubles, you can actually describe your hand better thanks to RHO's overcall.

Compare these two auctions:

According to the rules for negative doubles mentioned earlier, both of your bids seem to show four spades and enough points for a 1-level response (6+). Since there are two similar sequences available, the 1ª bid is used to show at least five spades while the double shows exactly four. You can see how useful this differentiation can be if you add a 3© bid below LHO's name. Now consider partner's dilemma when he holds a good hand including 3-card spade support -- how much easier it is when he knows you have at least five spades.

Up until now, we have looked at auctions with exactly one unbid major. Of course, there could also be two or none. Let's start with two.

Partner opens 1§ and RHO overalls 1¨. The opponents have actually done you a favor here. Although spades is your strongest suit, if RHO had passed you would have bid 1© because hearts is your lowest four-card major. Thanks to RHO's intervention you can now show BOTH suits with one bid -- a negative double.

After 1§-(1¨)-? a negative double GUARANTEES four cards in BOTH majors. Just as with other negative doubles, you could have a minimum response (6 HCP) or a much stronger hand. Basically, any hand with 6+ HCP and two 4-card majors starts with a negative double. If you are weak, you might have more than 4-4:

Once again, partner opens 1§ and RHO comes in with 1¨. You could bid 1ª now, but that risks losing the heart suit entirely since you are not strong enough to take a second bid. It is much better to show both majors in one shot via a negative double.

Be aware that partner is going to assume you have both majors if you double. It is not unlikely that opener's RHO will raise diamonds, perhaps to the three or even the four level. When opener has a good hand a 4-card major he must be able to bid KNOWING he is going to find at least a 4-4 fit.

When the bidding starts 1§ – (1¨) - ? responder cannot have a hand with no suitable bid.

Simply bid 1©, the same as you would have done if RHO had passed partner's 1§ opening. You cannot double because doing so places your side in dangerous waters if LHO raises to 3¨ and partner continues with 3ª expecting you to have four spades.

When the minors are switched and the auction begins 1¨-(2§)-? things are a little different since you cannot now introduce a 4-card major by bidding it at the 2 level. Responder would like to have two 4-card majors for a negative double in this position. However, it cannot be guaranteed or there will be too many hands on which he simply has no sensible call.

Finally, what about auctions in which both majors have already been claimed? Things remain pretty much the same, except that now responder will usually have both minors for a negative double.

You can think of a negative double as an offensive takeout double if that helps. A normal takeout double occurs when the opponents open the bidding, and thus you are already on the defensive. A negative double is used when partner has opened the bidding. Since partner has already shown strength, the negative double is made with a much wider HCP range (particularly at the lower end).

So now you know when to make a negative double. But, what happens after partner makes one? It may be a question of semantics, but this is how you should think. Let's say the auction starts:

One of the first things you learned when you started playing was to raise partner's suit when you held support. So, with 4-card heart support and a minimum opening bid, you make a minimum raise in hearts (to 2©). With a little more than a minimum you would jump to 3©, etc.

Where is the difference? Partner has effectively responded 1© to your opening bid. With a minimum opening bid and four hearts, you can make a minimum raise (to 2©). NOTE: this is NOT a REVERSE BID. Even though he has not literally bid hearts, by bidding 2© now you are supporting partner's suit.

If you do not have four-card support for an unbid major, you can rebid in notrump (with a stopper in the opponent's suit), rebid your own suit, or bid a new suit of your own. In effect, if you think of a negative double as a natural bid in a suit taken away by the opponent's overcall, it should be clear how to rebid. Compare the two auctions above -- any bid you could have made in the first auction (1NT, 2§, 2¨, 3¨) will still carry the same meaning in the second sequence.

Finally, we return to a point raised at the very start of this lesson. Can we still penalize the opponents when they make a reckless overcall? The answer is a resounding, "Yes". However, it is up to opener to make the actual double.

When playing negative doubles, if the auction starts with an opening bid, an overcall and then two passes, opener is expected to "reopen" the bidding if he is short in the opponent's suit. If you think about it, this makes a great deal of sense. The opponents want to play at the 1/2-level, so they don’t have the vast majority of the values. Therefore, opener's partner has some values, so why didn't he bid? The answer is, usually, that he has the overcaller's suit.

Reopening the bidding with a double does not promise any significant extra values -- just shortage in the suit overcalled.

HAPPY BRIDGINGJ

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