A 9 5 4
	3
	K J 6 4 3
	Q 8 3
10 2		Q 7 6
K 9 7 2		A J 6
A 8 7		10 9 2
A K 5 4		J 9 7 5
	K J 8 3
	Q 10 8 5 4
	Q 5
	10 2

West	North	East	South
1	1	2	2
Dbl	All	pass

There is one phenomenon OKBridge has made me aware of -- doubtless because hand records are easier to come across rather than because it doesn't happen at regular tables -- is the penchant for many players to lose their common sense in competition. They will go to the two level and even three level in a new suit opposite a partner's overcall when they don't have the point count to go to the two level (in a new suit) opposite an opening bid, which in fact they're not terribly inclined to do. They know the bidding system. They know what they need for a new suit at the two level. But when a partner overcalls, they haven't had such explicit instructions, lose their anchor and sometimes go haywire.

On the above hand, two hearts would be an overbid if North had opened the bidding. While a one-level overcall, even vulnerable, can traditionally be a little shy of an opening bid, as you get your suit in early, possibly as a good lead director, possibly as a suit you can compete in.

What's the solution if we don't have such specific directives as we do opposite an opening bid? The solution, my friends, is common sense. Whether your side opened the bidding or entered after the opponents' did, the cards won't know when that opening lead is made and will have to have the same potential for taking tricks as if you'd opened the bidding.

Here it is obvious that the best N-S trump suit is spades, while diamonds are viable through a series of lucky breaks: 3-3 diamonds, A K of clubs before the queen, a one-way working finesse for the spade queen. Would a double of two clubs be considered a "responsive" double, allowing the spade fit to be located? I suppose many would play it that way, but failing that, let's look at South's hand from the standpoint of common sense.

I would say there are two basic factors to consider when offering a new suit opposite your partner's overcall when there is no indication you have a lot of bidding room. First, do you want to bid that suit. Do you feel you'd be missing something if you didn't? Would you be happy playing opposite a singleton? I think that moth-eaten heart suit has to fail on all counts. And secondly, do you have any support for your partner's suit? Here the answer has to be a qualified yes. A queen doubleton isn't the most stupendous of support, but it's not all that shabby either.

Having said that about diamonds and recognizing that spades would clearly be a better trump suit, I went to the record and found: Well, some people were only making 2 spades and so tied the people in diamonds, just about all making 3. Further, the difference between making 3 spades and 3 diamonds was about 53% to 37% -- significant but not diastrous. One East-West pair above was in 2 hearts! They got a poor score, though not as poor as the N-S pairs in that contract. And yes, there were a few others. At one table, the bidding was identical to the above except that East above bid a no trump instead of two clubs. But the same two hearts came from South.

And by an interesting conjunction of circumstances, the East-West pairs with an 8-card club suit with 22 hcp's can't make 2 clubs, while E-W can make 3 diamonds on a seven-card diamond suit and 18 hcp's. (A runnable side-suit is the most important factor here.)

No, of course South can't know that at the time. That's not the way we play bridge. And I would say without qualification that if South could bid both major suits by a doubling convention, by all means do so. But if you can bid only one suit, better stick with a known modest fit in diamonds than to explore on that exiguous point count.

The upshot: N-S got less than 2% on the hand, a frightfully bad board. When you get under, say, 20%, you can be pretty sure you're violating some common sense principles of bridge. And Oh, yes, one more thing: if you take these chances often enough, you're bound to come out ahead some of the time. But you've got a long row to hoe when you get just a couple of those 2% boards. So I say again, Do you really want to bid that suit. Is it that good that your partner needs to know about it? And do you really want to take your partner out of his trump suit?