Oxford University Contract Bridge Club - Beginners Lessons

4: Competitive bidding: Overcalls and Take-out Doubles

When opponents open the bidding, your criteria for entering the auction changes. You know they have opening
values so it is less likely you are making game. However it is important to compete for the partscores and you might be
able to push them too high. By overcalling you are taking up their bidding space and may help partner to find the right
lead.

1 Overcalling
1.1 Overcalling a suit
While you need some HCPs to overcall, the quality of your suit is often more important. Vulnerability is also important.
Here are some guidelines:

• 1-level Overcall: You need at least a 5 card suit. The less points you have the better your suit quality needs to
be. With less than 10HCP you want at least two honours in the suit. With more points you can get away with
only 1.

♠2 While this hand only ♠QT8 This hand has more HCPs, ♠KQT The suit quality is the same
♥AKJT2 has 8HCP, it has a ♥QT972 but the suit quality is ♥QT972 as the previous hand but the
♦72 good suit and is worth ♦Q7 poor and you shouldn’t ♦72 extra values are enough to
♣T984 a 1♥ overcall. ♣A32 overcall with this. ♣AK4 compensate for this.

• 2-level Overcall: To overcall at the two level you almost always want a 6 card suit with at least two honours and
10+HCPs. None of the above hands are suitable for a two level overcall.

♠42 ♠K2 Again this has more HCP, but ♠876

♥76 This is a minimum ♥A7 the suit is just not good ♥A3 This is a typical two level
♦AJT742 2 level overcall. ♦QT9742 enough. Too often you will ♦KQT872 overcall.
♣KQ9 ♣KT9 go for a large penalty. ♣A4

• Jump Overcall: A suit overcall with a single jump shows 15+ points with a really good 6 card suit (Strong Jump
overcall). [You can adjust this according to partnership agreement, but if you are playing weak jump overcalls you
have to be really careful to avoid going for very large penalties]. The following two hands are worth strong jumps
overcalls:
♠876 ♠AQT976
The suit quality is not quite so good,
♥A3 ♥A3
Make a jump overcall of 3 ♣. but your jump overcall will be at the
♦AKJT72 ♦KQ7
two level, so just about worth it.
♣A4 ♣64

1.2 No-Trump Overcalls

When opponents open and you have a balanced hand with 12HCP there should be no particular reason why you want
to declare the hand. Your high cards will take tricks equally as declarer or as a defender. We therefore reserve our 1nt
overcall for stronger balanced hands:

A 1nt overcall shows a balanced hand with 16-18HCP and a stop in the suit opened.

1
Oxford University Bridge Club - Beginners Lessons
The following hands are typical 1nt overcalls of a 1♥ opening by your opponent:

♠K6 ♠KJ76
♥AJT3 ♥AT3
♦A72 ♦AK72
♣QJT8 ♣84

We respond to a 1nt overcall in exactly the same manner as we do over a 1nt opening, making not of the stronger
point range.

1.3 Opponents open 1NT:

There are a wide variety of artificial systems that some people play to allow them to overcall on a wider variety of hands.
For now we will keep it simple with natural overcalls.

A double of opponents 1nt opening shows 16+ points. You expect to defeat your
opponents more often than not.

Suit bids over a nt opening are the same as overcalling a suit at the two level.

2 Take-out Doubles
When opponents open at the one level you rarely want to make a penalty double, so we give double a conventional
meaning. If you opponent has length in a suit then it is more likely you have shortage in that suit.

A double of opponents 1 level opening is a take-out double showing shortage in the suit
bid and length in the unbid suits with 12+HCP.

The ideal shape is 4441 or 5440. Partner is expected to take it out by bidding one of the unbid suits even if they have
very few points.

Hand 1 Hand 2 Hand 3

♠AJT8 ♠AQT8 ♠KJT98
♥7 ♥52 ♥6
♦AT72 ♦AJT7 ♦KQ3
♣K983 ♣KJ2 ♣AT72
Assuming your opponent opens 1♥ in each case, hand 1 is a perfect take-out double. Hand two has a less desirable
shape, but the extra points make up for it - of partner chooses diamonds it won’t be the end of the world. With hand
three although it meets the take-out double criterion I prefer to overcall 1♠ as you don’t want the 5-3 major fit to
disappear.

If you ask partner to choose by making a take-out double and then over-rule them you
are showing a very strong hand.

In response to a take-out double, you must bid if your right hand opponent passes. Suppose partner doubled 1♥ and you
hold ♠7653, ♥653, ♦762, ♣652 you must still bid 1♠ as your opponent is bound to make 1♥X with plenty of overtricks.
Given a simple response to the double shows 0+points we reserve a jump response for hands with 10+ points. You know
partner has at least 12 and you are effectively inviting to game. With even stronger hands you might bid game straight
away.