Social Lesson 17, Competitive Bidding – Overcalls & Preempts

Hello Bridge Friends!

Love it or hate it, competitive Bridge bidding is the spice of life at the table. So once we have a solid grasp on the basics of non-competitive auctions, it’s time for us to step-up and delve into both the exciting and darker side of Bridge bidding.

And how about you?  Once your Right Hand Opponents has opened the auction, in the second seat are you ready to overcall a wide variety of hands with various strengths and suit lengths?  How many points: 12+, 8-9,  or perhaps only 6-7 High Card Points at the 1 level?  Does vulnerability matter and how about your distribution of honors – do you need good working honors in your long suit?  And if not at the 1 level (1D, 1H or 1S), do you need better working honors if you overcall at the 2 level if making a non-jump bid?  So if it’s a preemptive jump bid, now maybe?    We welcome you to tune in to our first in a series of episodes on competitive overcall bids, starting off with suit overcalls in the second seat – be it at the 1, 2 or 3 level.

Part 1 – Introduction to Overcalls for all audiences – click here to view 18 minutes of video
Free, Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 – 30 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 – 17 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 – 33 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 5 – 32 minutes of video

Questions, questions and BridgeHands has dozens of hand examples with an assortment of hands variation to illustrate when overcalls can pay handsome dividends for you and your partner. Even when the opponents win the contract, it’s a comforting feeling that your competitive overcalls helped you set the contract by promoting your suit, be the first to get a critical finesse, grab an extra trick making a ruff by getting off to the best lead, or causing them to overbid.  On the other hand, yes, you will be able to witness the consequence of making a poor overcall leading to bidding disasters, lead disasters and perhaps worst of all, potentially a loss of partnership trust.

Sure, many of our seasoned players already have a solid understanding on the basic do’s and don’ts of making overcalls, yet in our discussion and hand examples we will illustrate lots of examples where you might want to ensure both you and your partner have agreements on your bidding style, agreements and situations where your treatments should vary from the norm.  But wait… there’s more!  We guarantee to surprise you on a few hands where a very subtle or peculiar lead or play can in turn cause an unexpected consequence!

And best yet, here at BridgeHands all of our Bridge hands are full of commentary (regardless of who is the declarer and defender) and analysis on hand evaluation, bidding and play with over 2 hours of animated card play.   As always, our hand discussion offers a refreshingly rare glimpse of Bridge inside the minds of all four players at the table as play progresses, bid by bid, card by card.  Visitors are welcome to view the Part 1 series of our video lesson with several hands including critical decisions that will influence our card play.  Those with the Free BridgeHands  membership may also watch Part 2 where we review another three hands with provocative play tips and strategies to ensure you bring home the contract. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire five-part lesson segments with dozens of hands, plus an opportunity to view future shows during your membership subscription period.   And as always, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive that is growing by leaps and bounds, by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

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