Over
the past few months my partner and I have worked up a simple defence to the strong 1C system, with encouraging
results and so far no disasters. When
the strong clubbers make an opening bid, which is alerted, the first defender
puts in a bid and this simple expedient blunts the precision of the strong club system. This can be done on
slender values because in the strong club
system a double is for take out.
For
instance if the opening bid is 1C, which shows any 18+ hand, then without
interference, the responder has all the bids from 1D to 2NT to show hand type
and strength, a total of 9 different bids.
Our convention card says our defence to the strong club is natural and
pre-emptive, which means we put in a 2 level overcall. After this the responder’s options are
reduced from 9 to 3. Note that the
orange book allows any defence to a conventional opening bid ( item 12.11 ) and
at 5.4.4 says a weak jump overcall is not alertable.
Here
is an example from the recent Pegasus Congress swiss pairs event, board
17. The bidding starts 1C(a) – 2C –
3C(a)
The
overcall was made on a 5 card club suit headed by the jack. The strong club responder has a good hand
with 5 controls and a problem because the hand also has 5 clubs headed by the
AK. The obvious natural call is double
for penalties, but this is not a system bid and there is just no way of getting
in a penalty double! The system way of
describing responder’s hand is to make a cue bid in the overcalled suit. Now the pair are up to the 3 level before
either can make a natural bid.
Hand
17 is a misfit but the strong clubbers do not realise this until they are well
past 3NT and eventually take a punt at 6NT which goes 3 off. By making a disruptive overcall the
defenders have netted a 98% score on the board. Pre-empting on tram tickets adds excitement to the game.
Of course the interference does not always
work. Here is an example against the
big one: 1C(a) - 2S - 2NT – pass – ‘Oh, I don’t know, 6H.’ Good guess, just making.
One
other advantage of putting in an overcall over 1C is that if responder has a
fair hand with a stop in the overcalled suit, then the system bid is in NT and
now, if the hand is played in NT, the wrong hand is declarer and the defender
on lead knows what suit his partner wants.
Here
is our defence to the 1D bid. The bid
shows a hand of 11-17 points (but usually 11-14) which is deficient in the
majors. So we presume these cards are
in the other 3 hands and the first defender puts in an overcall in his longer
major. Not rocket science but
effective. The only exception to this
is if the first defender has a good hand when he starts with a take-out
double. After the overcall the strong club responder has his bid
options reduced from 9 to 3. If the two
sides are evenly matched for points the bidding is likely to be contested to
the 3 level and the eovercallers, with their major suit can determine whether
to defend or play the hand. It seems to
me the 1D opening bid is of more advantage to the opponents than to the strong
clubbers.
The
1H/S opening bid is alertable and shows a 4 card suit with possibly a longer
minor. Here again the first defender
should strive to put in an overcall, then the responder cannot show his hand
value with precision. If the overcaller
is single suited a pre-empt is a good idea then if the opener made a canape bid
with a longer minor he may not be able to show it at all.
The
strong club 2 level openers show
distributional hands of modest value and have a pre-emptive element about
them. It is easy to select a suitable
overcall and the chances of the overcall attracting a penalty double is either
low, or in my experience, non-existent.
SUMMARY:
when an alerted strong 1C system bid
is made on your right you should make an overcall if weak or double with a good
hand.
Aubrey
Pengilly