Light third seat openings --Handle them with confidence!

Hi all,

It was very early in my bridge experience that I learned that third seat openings were suspect. As a college student, we left Boulder U. of Colorado to attend the Denver bridge club to see if we could beat "the women in polyester pants suits". ;-) --yes we were all young once --now we may be one of those women. The acronym: WPP's!

After a third seat opening I negotiated a part score contract that the WPP let us have. When I tried to place some values in her hand I found out in the end game that she had but five points. When I queried that action, she but flashed a coy smile.

Third seat openings are suspect, especially nv at mp. Get in there with your lead direct or get in there just to muddy up the water. Last weekend I opened this gem 9875,543,AJT93,T 1D and opps not being able to negotiate their strength could not manage to find their cold game for 35/36 mp.

Some time ago my frisky-ness got the better of me and nv at mp in third seat I opened this gem A2,T865,A982,QT7 1H. Hey the bridge Gods gave me two bullets!! The upshot of that was that we were on for four --. Ten count openings in third seat protect against a lot of hands which have legitimate contracts opposite a passed partner.

Have my frisky openings backfired! Indeed they have! But not enough for me to discontinue them all together.

The point of this missive is not to expound on third seat openings, just to make you aware that they are done routinely and that every partnership needs to be prepared to show strength after such nonsense! So here, this is what needs to be assimilated and practiced in every partnership.

Strong suit hands:

The tradition is to start the double with 17 counts --throw that notion away, that is way too light. Overcall your suit and make a game try later after a raise. If you're afraid your partner may pass a non fitting six count if you overcall, start your hand out with a double and show your suits later. These hands look almost like 2C openings but are approximately a K lighter.

Strong balanced hand: 15-18 --overcall 1N
19-21 -- X and then bid one no-trump if you have opps suit stopped.

X and Q bid if you don't have four card support for the major your pard offers and don't have their suit stopped.
If you have support for pard's major jump in the major and bid one less level than you would if you had opening the hand (remember, pard may have a zero count, don't go too crazy)

22+ X and bid 2N.

If the opponents get totally frisky and raise their suits, remember repeat doubles show the same take-out shape but add a K of value every time you pull the red card.

If you're solid on all these competitive calls, the third seat light openings will hardly bother you at all in the bidding. You'll also know how to double them off when it seems to be to your advantage.

However, sometimes light third seat openings create havoc in your decisions as to the play of the hand and will get opponents off to an optimum lead. Once, an opponent vul vs vul at imps bid this hand 1S in third seat. A7432,xx,xxx,xx. Yep, with a straight face. Once we negotiated 3N with the methods above, the leader started unblocking at trick one with his third best spade. Down one. Our teammates weren't so frisky and a normal fourth best spade produced a spade block. Lose 13.

That's how it is in big-boy land (and even with those women in polyester pants suits)--get prepared or lose the board.

As per usual, I'd be willing to answer any questions. Isolde