[bravejason]

LHO deals and opens one diamond. Partner overcalls one spade. RHO passes. What is the proper bid with:
Q7
97632
KQJ5
AT

I'm thinking that the best bid is two no trump on the grounds that two diamonds would be a spade limit raise; a spade raise would show trump support; the clubs are too short; and the hearts are likely weaker than partner's spades and partner probably has just 2 of them. What would you bid? Is passing an option?

[mikestar13]

It depends on your partnership's overcall standards. If your style in fairly middle-of-the-road, your suggestion of 2NT is quite reasonable. If your one level overcalls are very light, 1NT is enough. In no case would I pass this hand.

[Kaitlyn S]

 mikestar13, on 2016-September-11, 15:44, said:

It depends on your partnership's overcall standards. If your style in fairly middle-of-the-road, your suggestion of 2NT is quite reasonable. If your one level overcalls are very light, 1NT is enough. In no case would I pass this hand.

I couldn't have said it better.

[msjennifer]

For the usual over calls ranging from 6 to 15 HCP,in our style,we play 1NT as balanced 9 to 12 HCP so that's what is our bid.Assuming an 8 loser hand with partner,had the spade holding been Qxx, by removing one x from heart suit,we would have bid 2D showing a seven losers hand and willingness to play a 3S contract.

[The_Badger]

hi bravejason,

I think I know exactly what you are thinking: it's one of those inbetweeny hands that if you bid low game will be missed, and if you bid high and encourage partner, game cannot be made.

As mikestar13 says it all depends on the strength of your partner's overcalls, and obviously the vulnerability too - as that might marginally change the strength of an overcall.

Personally I'm more inclined to err on the side of caution. It may be 12HCPs, but it's not a great twelve with your longest suit being the weakest, and your strongest suit under the opening bidder.

Given that overcalls are made on less points than opening bids, 1NT looks enough. I feel.

[aawk]

2nt is the best bid to describe your hand. You got the 11-12 HCP (range for a 2nt bid), KQTx in d and a bad 5 card (h) counts as a 4 card.

Other reasons to bid 2nt is that you get the lead to you and if your partner got 5-4 in the majors he can bid 3h as non forcing or bid 3d to ask for extra information and you can introduce your h aswell.

[NickRW]

Well, I'd be more than happy to overcall 1S over 1D with say

AKxxx
Jx
xx
98xx

Last time I read a beginner's book it said overcall at the one level with an 8 count and a decent 5 card suit. So I don't think I'm alone in that. Do you really want to be in 2NT with that as a dummy? Sure you might make it, but if the spades don't break it looks to me, on cursory inspection, like the defence are probably due 1 spade, 3 hearts, 1 diamond and 1 club for 1 down.

Edit a few mins later, you could lose another club - the example hand in my head originally had the club jack as well. And, of course, the spades could break or the defence gift you the contract somehow - or at the other end of the spectrum you might lose a fourth heart.

[Caitlynne]

I think it is awfully timid to Pass when you have 12 HCP. It is likely to be your hand and you could easily have a game. A 1S overcall is not necessarily a modest hand; partner could be quite strong.

This problem is well known: is a new suit forcing or not? If not, is it merely intended to play or is it encouraging.

For this reason, many play transfer advances here! Though there are many ways to play transfer advances, the most usual and simplest is this:
(1D) 1S (P) ?
2C = natural and forcing
2D = transfer to hearts (a transfer to hearts is on because hearts was skipped over by the 1S overcall)
2H = good spade raise
2S = obstructive spade raise

So, if you wanted to, playing transfer advances you could bid 2D to show the 5 hearts with the plan to then either preference back to 2S or bid 2NT after partner bids 2H.

I honestly am not sure what I would do. I don't much like bidding hearts, but I don't like 2N much either because it is relatively inflexible. But, without playing transfer advances, 2NT has much to recommend it because it does communicate your values while showing the most notable feature of your hand - your diamond values.

[miamijd]

 mikestar13, on 2016-September-11, 15:44, said:

It depends on your partnership's overcall standards. If your style in fairly middle-of-the-road, your suggestion of 2NT is quite reasonable. If your one level overcalls are very light, 1NT is enough. In no case would I pass this hand.

+1

[zillahandp]

Dependng on your system 1nt would show the strength, not two but 2d would be our style as a ucb

[Zelandakh]

 aawk, on 2016-September-12, 05:23, said:

2nt is the best bid to describe your hand. You got the 11-12 HCP (range for a 2nt bid), KQTx in d and a bad 5 card (h) counts as a 4 card.

This is a common mistake from beginners, confusing the range for a NT response to an opening with that of an overcall. As a general rule the standards for a NT response to an overcall are about 3hcp higher than for an opening bid, so 1NT covers around 9-12hcp and not 2NT. Of course overcall style comes into play here too and some pairs will have slightly different ranges but as this is the N/B forum I think we can assume fairly vanilla agreements and therefore rule out 2NT showing 11-12!