There is Nothing Like a (Balanced) Fit

Unless it's Top Honors!

	10 4
	10
	Q J 10 4 2
	J 9 6 5 2
K J 7 4		A Q 8 5
Q 9 8 7 2		A J 6 3
K 9 6		A
A		Q 8 7 4
	9 3 2
	K 5 4
	8 7 5 3	Vul: No one
	K 10 3	Opening lead: 2 of hearts

South	West	North	East
Pass	1	2 NT	4 NT
5	Pass	Pass	6
Pass	Pass	7	Dbl
All	pass

All but four pairs were in hearts here, none with a negative score. At the top of the scroll was an E-W pair down one in 6 no. At the bottom were 3 rather foolhardy N-S pairs in a too-expensive minor sac (yes, one South player preferred clubs!). I will discuss the side issues later, but discuss first the category at issue here.

North's unusual 2 no trump for the minors is perhaps not the worst example of overbidding we've seen. On best defense (West cashes his A of clubs, hits his partner with anything and gets a club ruff), N-S are already subject to a stiffer penalty than a game for E-W. Oh but they've got slam, and if they didn't we wouldn't be down 3 tricks! Okay, fair enough. We'll (just barely) tolerate the 2 no bid. But 5 diamonds by South? North is responsible for pushing the partnership to the 3 level, but a jump of two more levels with 2 kings for top cards? How many levels can you raise your partner's opening bid with a fit and 6 hcp's? Of course that's only worth a one-level raise, and that's the minimum. With 7 or 8 or 9 hcp's, that's still worth only a one-level raise. Further, North is bidding a competitive distributional hand and may not have the tickets for an opening bid -- and doesn't.

So you might note that the five level is already too expensive with best defense. That is too expensive for a slam bid by the non-vul opponents. For you could be set 5, which is minus 1100. The opponents didn't grab the opportunity. Instead they bid a fairly routine heart slam, which you might as well let 'em have. But no, North now raises the hand two levels more!

I hate that bid, i.e., North's bid here. He's already bid more than his hand is worth. So now he raises the commitment two levels more! ! The mentality, and I've heard this spelled out explicitly as dummy lays down his hand, "If you can go to five, I can go to seven." But wait a minute: he went to five because you showed some good tickets in the minors. You've already bid those values and then some. So you can't afford to bid 'em again! Two no is aggressive but not totally outrageous. Five diamonds is reckless. And 7 diamonds is simply beyond the pale, totally intolerable. You bid your values and shut up. Okay, not if partner makes a forcing bid.

The rest of the discussion is not germane to competitive overbids but covers some points that the hand invites.

As for no trump, I have mentioned before that on a balanced fit, there's a good chance you'll have an extra trick by way of a ruff, and it'll probably be safer than no trump. Suppose the heart finesse had been on? Then 6 no makes, but those in hearts have an overtrick.

That either balanced suit works better than no trump isn't a certainty, of course. Let's give East, say, the king of clubs for the queen. Now the diamond ruff you can get in a heart contract would in no trump be the sluff of a diamond on the K of clubs. Same trick and no advantage. Or give West the queen of diamonds for one of the spots. Again the ability to ruff a diamond would be merely a top winner in no trump.

So you could come out 10 points ahead of the people in hearts. The problem here is that you can't go back and give your partner that key card, and you can't fathom whether you'll have just the tickets to make NT as viable in number of tricks as a trump contract. There are countless ways in which the hand is simply safer and worth a trick more in a trump contract. I'm speaking of balanced fits now, say 5-4 as above. Going for no trump in the face of the good heart fit cost one pair a lot of points. But keep your eyes peeled. Note what happens on other balanced fits and how the no trumpers fare.

Now the preference for clubs over diamonds must be addressed. This is almost as bad as bumping the bid to the 7 level. The choice of clubs is a false preference here, obviously made on the basis of a K in that suit and 8-high in the other. You choose (if the choice is between the majors or between the minors) by length. Lemme briefly point out some figures that might give a club-preferer pause: If you have three trump in support of your partner's suit, you have no chance of trump in dummy when all trump are out if your partner bid a four-card suit, no chance if your partner bid a five-card suit, and only a 40% chance if he has a six-card suit. But if you have four-card support, you have a 68% chance of having a trump in dummy when all trump are out if he bid four-card suit, a 90% chance if it's a five-carder and a 100% chance if it's a six-carder. Now, compare zero, zero and 40 with 68, 90 and 100 and you had better be able to see why four-card support is better than three-card. Further, the K of clubs (given that North is advertising clubs also) will be useful in a diamond contract. You don't need to make it trump, and indeed, don't want to make it trump when you have greater length in diamonds. Get out your trump, and now the K will perform as well as it would have as trump.

BR>

Now as for the people in a minor suit, in every case by way of a 2 no bid over an opening heart bid: I am reminded of the advice to those about to get married in a British humor magazine: Don't. On four high-card points? Opposite a passing partner? C'mon, you've gotta be kidding. I've mentioned before that people who are perfectly sensible when following a bidding system without interference from the opponents commonly lose their head in competition. Four hcp's. Had their partner opened the bidding (and second hand passed), these people wouldn't dream of going to the two level on 4 hcp's and might not even make a response at the one, where you traditionally need 6 points. But given a passing partner and an opponent who shows some strength, they said, "Partner, (since you're not strong enough to enter the bidding at the one level, and God knows I couldn't even give you a legitmate response at the one level), let's enter the bidding at the three level." Hm-m-mm.

It's a serious mistake to think an attactive two-suiter will carry you far without some top cards. A very serious mistake. You can't live without a goodly supply of top cards. Oh, he was bidding to sac? Oh, that do make it nice.

I need hardly tell anyone that even in sacrificing, you need a certain number of tricks or you've got a bad board. Over 6 hearts, at the vulnerability given, down four would be very good while down five (or more) would not. So you may claim you're bidding to sac, but you're really bidding to make 3 diamonds! Period. Now do you really think you'd like to bid 3 diamonds (or 3 clubs) when the first partner isn't strong enough for a one-level opening bid and the second partner isn't strong enough for a one-level response?

And it isn't just the 2 no trumper. South is looking at six hcp's. Three lie in the K of hearts, sitting before a heart opening bid. As it happens, the ace sits before the king, but those 3 hcp's still go for naught, for by the time it's established as the top heart, there isn't much you could do with it. Ya know, sometimes you've just gotta say, "Let 'em have their bid." As it turns out, South's 10 of clubs, which allows declarer to avoid more than one club loser, is more valuable than the king of hearts. So there.

Then there's my favorite type of overbidding, which is an flagrant overbid on top of a flagrant overbid. At least there isn't much room for argument. The two no bid on 4 hcp's is strictly from hunger. Two no is such a risky bid in the first place that North should have been sitting with his fingers in his mouth for fear his partner wold read him for a stronger hand and want to up the bidding far too far.