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advancing overcalls


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This is an involved area. In addition to trying to show the value of your hand (simple raise, invitational raise, game forcing raise, useful second suit or shortness) you must also take into account tactical considerations. Once both opponents have bid you should anticipate further competition. So, you have to make a judgment as to whether it is in your best interest to try to accurately describe your hand for your partner or to just blast to make it more difficult for your opponents to compete effectively.

 

Simply put, on many hands it is more a question of tactics than accuracy. Which way to go is impossible to determine in the abstract and is often difficult when given an actual hand.

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You also may have a very different set of options available, ie.

 

1 - 1 - 1 to you

 

vs. 1 - 1 - 2 to you.

 

The second one chews up many of your options. In the first you just raise the overcall or do it by cuebidding or to show different hand types (limit or limit plus with either 3 or 4 trumps etc).

 

It's a complicated business worthy of detailed partnership agreements that will pay dividends. Doesn't matter so much what they are as much as you have them.

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You also may have a very different set of options available, ie.

 

1 - 1 - 1 to you

 

vs. 1 - 1 - 2 to you.

 

The second one chews up many of your options. In the first you just raise the overcall or do it by cuebidding or to show different hand types (limit or limit plus with either 3 or 4 trumps etc).

 

It's a complicated business worthy of detailed partnership agreements that will pay dividends. Doesn't matter so much what they are as much as you have them.

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If you have discussed how you are going to respond to partner's opening when 2nd seat bids, and have agreements for that, then a simple start is to play the same in advancer's position. Ignore the opening bid, assume partner has opened (OK, knock a couple of points off his minimum strength to open if that has relevance), and then bid as after an overcall (correspondingly knocking off a couple of points off your hand if relevant). Not perfect, but needs no extra memory, and any agreement is better than none.
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Most bridge books give advice on advancing an overcall, but they all give examples of no interference by responder. How are advances changed when there is interference by a responder. This is more likely the case.

TKS

 

Mike Lawrence's Complete Book on Overcalls (the revised version) is a good place to start.

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