SIMPLE SUIT OVERCALLS:

The previous section dealt with what you need to open the bidding and how to respond to your partner's opening bids. However, half of the time, your opponents will open the bidding, and in order to be an effective player, you need to know when to enter the bidding (and when to stay out of it) under those circumstances.

Let's begin with a simple piece of useful information: if your opponents have exactly one 8-card fit, you and your partner almost certainly have one too. If your opponents have a 9-card or longer fit, you and your opponents are guaranteed to have at least an 8-card fit. Why? If your opponents have 8 diamonds between them, you and your partner have exactly 5 diamonds. Since your partnership's two hands have a total of 26 cards, you have 21 cards in the other three suits (26 minus the 5 diamonds). The only way you can have no 8-card fit is if you have 7 cards in each of the other three suits. Since there are 145 ways the 21 cards can be distributed between three suits, your chances of an 8-card fit are 99.3%. If you have only four cards in your opponents' suit (because they have a 9-card fit), you will have 22 cards to divide three ways, and a guaranteed fit. Keep this in mind during competitive auctions.

If you want to bid a suit after one of your opponents has opened, you need to meet stricter requirements than those for opening the bidding. First of all, you must bid a 5-card or longer suit when you overcall. Once your opponents have opened, you need to apply the same rigor to finding a fit that you would if you were opening a major. If this sounds a little strange, think back to how we talked about minors in the 5-card major system: we called them convenient minors. You bid them when you need to show opening points but lack the requisite major length to open 1H or 1S. When one of your opponents opens the bidding, he takes that convenience away from you and your partner. This is not all bad, however. In denying you the opportunity to bid a 4-card (or shorter) suit, he has forced you to pass more specific information to your partner.

Overcalling a One-Level Opening Bid:

OK, so now you know what you need for length, but what about HCP? If you are overcalling at the one level, you should have between 8 and 14 HCP. On the other hand, if your suit is lower than your opponent's suit, you will have to enter the bidding at the two level. For this, you need 11 to 16 HCP. You can come in at the two level with fewer points by trading about a point and a half (rounded down) for each card in your suit beyond the fifth. These are fine rules, and generally you should not drop below these levels, but there is another factor to consider. If you are in second seat and overcalling (your RHO is the dealer and has opened), exercise a little more caution in your overcalls than even these guidelines suggest. How much caution you exercise will depend upon your style of bidding (conservative, balanced, or aggressive), your experience, and your partner. In third or fourth seat, you can overcall hands to the lighter end of these ranges. This is because you have little information about the other two hands. In third or fourth seat, you know something about your partner and possibly one opponent (because of passes), and you can be more assured of balanced HCP between the two partnerships.

Balancing Overcalls:

When a pass from you will end the auction, you are said to be in balancing seat, and that is a fine place to be when there has been only one bid in the auction. You can deduce a great deal of information about everyone's strength. Subtract your HCP from 23 and you've got an idea of your partner's HCP. How do we get that number? LHO opened one of a suit (minimum of 12 HCP), and responder passed (maximum of 5 HCP), so you know that around 17 of the deck's 40 HCP are accounted for (opener may have a few more, but responder may have a few less).

Based on what you know already about what your partner would need to overcall a suit and because, as we'll see in the next piece, your partner would overcall 1NT with 15 to 18 HCP, you can further limit partner's probable point range. You can decide, in balancing seat, whether you want to let your opponents settle for a low contract that might have them missing a game or whether you prefer to compete for a decent contract yourself. Note that as you limit your partner's points (in those situations where you have a weak hand), you need to add them to opener's total. He may have a huge hand, and passing his bid might be just the thing to frustrate opponents.

Overcalling a Preempt:

Remember how the purpose of preemptive opening bids (weak twos, weak threes, etc.) is to kill your opponent's bidding space? Well guess what? Now you're the opponent. In order to overcall a preempt with your own suit at the two level, you only need 12 HCP and a 5-card suit—basically an opening hand.

When you are forced to overcall in your suit above the two level, begin with the 12 HCP for a 5-card suit at the two level and add 3 HCP. After that, subtract 2 HCP for each card after the fifth in your suit. Thus with a 6-card suit at the three level, you would want 13 HCP (12 HCP plus 3 HCP for one level higher than two minus 2 HCP for one card beyond the fifth in your suit: 12 + 3 - 2 = 13). For a 7-card suit at the four level, you want 14 HCP (12 + 6 - 4). Beware of this last one, however. This is a fine guideline for overcalling a preemptive bid made at the three level where opener may have no more than 9 HCP, but he could have more if he opens at the four level.

All of this assumes that you are overcalling the preempt in direct seat (RHO is opener). However, what happens in an auction like this one: 2S, pass, pass, __ ? Here you are in balancing seat, and your partner has a limited hand, but remember that he needs a 5-card suit to make any suit bid, and he may lack the HCP to bid 2NT or he may have 4-4-4-1 distribution (though with a singleton in opponent's suit and some points, he would have doubled for takeout). In a situation such as this, you can come in with an even weaker hand, reducing your requirements by about 2 HCP. This is because all of the information you have seen suggests that the points are fairly evenly distributed, so you and your partner have a good chance to compete. Your 10-HCP hand may be golden here, and when possible you shouldn't let your opponents sit in a contract that will probably give them 110 points and a good result.

Overcalling After You Have Passed:

The rules for overcalling in an auction after you have passed are what you probably expect. You show a hand that is suitable for an overcall but not for an opening. The value of this kind of bid cannot be overstated. In a situation such as this, both you and your partner have already passed, and so, probably, has responder (if responder had entered the bidding, there would be almost no chance that you would have a viable bid left, and even if you did, your partner would have no strength to support you). These auctions often see the difference in HCP between the partnerships of four points (18 for one and 22 for the other), and that means that you and your partner have a good chance to compete for a part score. Furthermore, as you will almost certainly be bidding a major at the one level (because responder would have been liklier to enter the bidding with some extra length in a new suit at the one level), you and your partner may well be looking for a fit in a higher denomination than your opponents, which means that with all else being equal, your opponents will have to risk a questionable contract at the three level or above if they want to buy the contract. Rarely will they get a good sacrifice out of such a bid.

Point ranges and holdings for overcalls in these auctions are essentially the same as for other overcalls, except, of course, that you have denied opening strength on the upper end. As a final note, keep in mind that your partner could easily have 14 HCP in third seat with this auction that has you as dealer: pass, 1H, pass, pass, 1S. Your partner's pass after the 1H opener doesn't necessarily deny opening points, but it does deny a 5-card suit in a hand with overcalling points. If you are looking at 11 HCP in your hand, you might even have game, and you can't afford to let that go.