This was a great treatment of overcalls, which have been hard for me to understand. Thank you! I wonder about takeout doubles, though - isn’t that also a form of overcall?
That’s been one of the hardest parts of trying to learn bridge online or from books - every source jumps straight into all the complexity, so you have a million edge cases to learn right from the start. I really appreciate how you have been covering “just the basics”.
Good question! A stop is a card that can win a trick in the suit, so A, Kx, Qxx, or more risky, Jxxx can potentially be a stop. For 1NT overcalls you need a stop in the opponents suit so you don’t completely lose control of the suit.
If opponents bid 1H over partner’s 1D for example, you can still bid 1S, but it’s difficult if you are forced to bid higher than planned, so consider the strength of your hands vs opponents. Options are to bid as normal, pass if that isn’t possible (remember that partner has chance to bid again), or a ‘negative double’ can be a useful bid.
Thank you Maggie for explaining these over call hands shown in their detail. I appreciate the ‘cue bid’ also being shown. Grateful thanks.
Thank you for this Mary, it's good to know it's been useful.
really great and clear explanations, thank you!
Many thanks for your feedback.
This was a great treatment of overcalls, which have been hard for me to understand. Thank you!
I wonder about takeout doubles, though - isn’t that also a form of overcall?
Yes, you’re quite right, takeout doubles are overcalls - I haven’t included takeouts here as it’s a little early to introduce them at this stage.
That’s been one of the hardest parts of trying to learn bridge online or from books - every source jumps straight into all the complexity, so you have a million edge cases to learn right from the start. I really appreciate how you have been covering “just the basics”.
Good to hear - thank you.
With a 1NT overcall, is the 'stop' in the opponents suit any honour or AK/Q?
Good question! A stop is a card that can win a trick in the suit, so A, Kx, Qxx, or more risky, Jxxx can potentially be a stop. For 1NT overcalls you need a stop in the opponents suit so you don’t completely lose control of the suit.
I sometimes wonder how openers are meant to handle overcalls - do they adjust their bids, or just not bid if the bidding has gone too high?
If opponents bid 1H over partner’s 1D for example, you can still bid 1S, but it’s difficult if you are forced to bid higher than planned, so consider the strength of your hands vs opponents. Options are to bid as normal, pass if that isn’t possible (remember that partner has chance to bid again), or a ‘negative double’ can be a useful bid.