Competing over NT --The Ins and Outs

I thought I'd open up a brief discussion about bidding over nt. I remember dearly the same discussion I had with John -- so many master points ago. It was one of my very first lessons from him and I've cherished it ever since. I asked John: no matter what system (think I was playing Capp at the time) what do you promise when you interfere over nt. How many points, and what shape. If I bid 2D Capp showing majors, am I 4/4, 5/4, 5/5 or what? When I bid 2M showing a major and a minor do I have four of the major and six of the minor or vice versa. What's the deal here. And how many points do I promise.

John told me to remember one salient point: you bid over nt with shape. Period. It's shape that matters. That's why most no-trump interference systems have an ability to show two-suiters. Make sense, now? So, I will pass with 15 counts that are 5332, 4432, 4333, etc, but........I will bid with 54,55,65, etc. hands sometimes with as little as five points. Of course you hope in this instance you're going to find some kind of fit with partner --but that doesn't have to be the case. Let's say you overcall 2H with five hearts and four of a minor. Your partner could be 1/2 in those suits.

When you overcall at nt you are delving into a non-fitting auction. Be careful. If you have a fit with lho or rho and not your partner, you risk going for a telephone number. Bid with shape, period, hopefully you'll land in a fit. Also be careful of this: partner is supposed to pref to the lower ranking suit given equal number of cards in your promised suits.

So, if you promise majors and pard has 2/2 in both majors, he/she will always bid hearts. when one shows majors over nt --you usually bid as to expect pard to pref hearts with equal length. Why is it hearts instead of spades? So that partner can bid 2S with good but not great hands and not raise the level too much. Normally, this is a 6-4 15-count or so: AKJxxx KQ10x Kx x is about normal. Then if he catches you with decent support, you might find a game.

If you make a Capp call promising major/minor two suiter, guarantee five in the major and four in the minor at least. Partner with 2 cards in your major will pref to the major. A singleton in your major and he/she might insist on playing your minor fit, albeit a level higher, or of course bid his/her own suit.

That's why Capp was designed the way it was. So here is an example: Your rho opens 1N and you're itching to get in there with KQTxx,Kxxx,Ax,xx. Suppose you decide to bid 2D majors. So here is Isolde with Ax,xx,xxxxx,xxxx and bids 2H. Remember with equal length I'm supposed to pref to the lower ranking suit. Now your trump suit is xx opposite Kxxx instead of Ax opposite KQTxx. Not cool and it gets worse. Over my advancing call lho bid 3C and pard bids 3H. Now just because I preffed hearts does not mean we have a heart fit as is the case here. SMASH by opponents. A much better hand to show 'majors' is Kxxx,KQTxx,Ax,xx -see the difference?

Sometimes you will feel like intefering over nt without the perfect hand to fit your system. So your choice is to make a disciplined pass, hoping to get in another bid later or that pard will balance; or to make a bid slightly contrary to your system but for which you might have some security. With the hand above one might fess up to spades only --at least you have three honors in the suit and the suit is playable opposite a stiff J. No guarantees, mind you, but there rarely is in bridge especially in non fitting auctions.

If you're fessing up to a single suited hand, have a six bagger or be prepared to apologize when it doesn't work out. The above example hand does not have six spades but it is in the 'shape' category. For you die-hards, in the balancing seat one might make an exception with 4/4 in the majors protecting against an lho who opened xx,xx,AKQJxx,AKx 1N (they do it, trust me) P.S. Now that you know what you know, what do you think of my rho's bidding when she showed 'majors' holding AKJxx,Jxxx,xx,xx in the National Mixed BAM?