Competing is defined as: If you pass, the auction could end. You don’t have enough strength to make a game try.
The parentheses around a bid in this article means that it’s the opponents that are bidding. Take the auction: 1 – (1) – 2 – (2). In this auction the 1-bidder is the Opener. The 1-bidder is the Overcaller. The 2-bidder is the Responder and the 2-bidder is the Advancer. Since the spade bids have () around them, they are the opponents’ bids. The assumption of competing is that if you have an eight-card fit, you are happy playing at the two-level and therefore your opponents should be unhappy and the opposite is true. If your opponents play all their eight-card fit part-scores at the two-level, you will not have a good score.
In the auction 1 – (1) – 2 – (2), Overcaller has at least five spades and Advancer has at least three spades. The opponents are at the two-level in at least an eight-card spade fit. If they overcalled on a four-card suit or raised on only two, that’s unlucky. When your opponents are in an eight-card fit at the two-level you don’t figure to get a good score. It doesn’t matter whether the game is matchpoints or IMPs. Therefore, when your opponents are in 2 and they have an eight-card fit, you should go out of your way to compete. Don’t worry about strength. If it’s a part-score hand, usually each side has around 20 HCPs. If Opener has six hearts he should bid 3. Bidding 3, which is a nine-card fit, will win more often then it will lose. 3 by Opener is not a game try. If Opener wants to make a game try over 2, there are four calls that he can make to invite game: 2NT, 3, 3 or 4 are all game tries. Responder should not bid 4 over Opener’s 3-competitive bid. If Opener has only five hearts, he should usually pass since Responder will get another bid or Overcaller might keep bidding. Opener is in direct seat, and the opponents might bid further. If Opener has a prime hand (prime meaning short spades and good hearts), he could bid 3. If 2 gets passed back to Responder, he needs a very good excuse not to bid 3 and should always bid 3 if he has four hearts. Four + five = nine. Holding QJ of spades or queens and jacks is an excuse not to compete. If Responder has a good five-card or longer minor, he could bid three-of-the-minor giving Opener a choice of part-scores. If you let the opponents play in 2 in their eight-card fit, you are headed for a bad score; so, you have little to lose and lots to gain if you compete.
If you’re the spade bidders, when should you bid again over 3? Your opponents are at the three-level in what could be an eight-card fit so you should usually bid again if you have nine spades between you. If you have six spades or your partner has four spades, the one with the extra spade should compete to 3. It has been established that if you have a nine-card fit, competing at the three-level will be a winner in the long run. Number of HCPs should have nothing to do with your decision to compete.
Take the auction 1 – (2) – 2 – (3). The opponents are already at the three-level in 3. If you have a nine-card spade fit, you should compete to 3. If Opener bids 3 in this auction, he is not making a game try, he’s competing. If Opener wants to make a game try he has three choices. 4 is an obvious game try. 3 and double are the other two game tries. If Opener wants to make a game try below 3 in this auction, he has to choose between double and 3. Opener doesn’t have room to make a natural game try. He could have clubs or hearts or both to make a 3-game try. You can define what double means in your partnership. I like double to show diamond shortness, which allows Responder to pass with a diamond stack. If for some reason, you opened 1 with Axxxxx Kxx x Kxx, you should bid 3. It’s the sixth spade, which brings the spade total to nine that makes a difference, not the number of high-card points. However, if you have AQxxx Axx Qx Qxx, you should pass since you only have eight spades between you and your partner.
As Responder, who raised to 2, what are your options if 3 comes back to you? The auction has gone 1 – (2) – 2 – (3) – pass – (pass). If you have four spades, you have a nine-card fit and should bid 3. If you have only three spades, you probably should not compete to 3. If Opener bids 3 you should pass, no matter how strong you are. Opener is competing. He’s only bidding 3 because he has six of them. The more points you have, the more likely it is that Opener will make 3.
The auctions 1 – (2) – 2 – (3) and 1 – (2) – 2 – (3) present a problem. How do you make a game try since there are no in-between bids available? You need to be able to bid three-of-your major when you hold six of them and have a nine-card fit. Therefore, double should be an artificial game try. It’s called a maximal double.
Overcalling at the one-level can help you compete. I have gotten good results overcalling at the one-level any time I have a five-card suit and at least eight HCPs. Suit quality does not matter. Axx 65432 Axx xx is a 1 overcall. I very rarely get doubled and go for a number when I overcall so light. A 1 overcall lets partner know that you have five hearts. If the opponents land in 2 in an eight-card fit, partner can compete with 3. However, you need close to an opening bid to overcall at the two-level.
Minor opening bids are more complicated since you can open 1 with only three. In the auction 1 – (1) – 2 – (2), the opponents are at the two-level in an eight-card spade fit. If you have a seven-card club fit, you don’t want to bid at the three-level. Therefore, it’s up to Opener to bid 3 when he has four or more of them. He knows Responder has at least four clubs. When the opponents have an eight-card fit and are at the two-level, it’s usually right to bid 3 even if you only have an eight-card club fit. Remember, the opponents are in an eight-card fit at the two-level, and therefore they are happy.
Sometimes you don’t know what type of fit you and your partner have. In this case you should use the ‘compete with shortness in their suit’ rule. You hold x Kxxx Axxxx Jxx. The auction goes 1 – (1) – double – (2) – Pass – (Pass) to you. The opponents have an eight-card spade fit and they’re at the two-level. I like 2NT in these type of auctions to say, “I don’t know where we belong, you guess.” 2NT having this meaning comes up a lot more often than 11 points and two spade stoppers. 2NT for takeout by any player helps you compete – especially when you don’t know what your fit is.
If your opponents are at the two-level in an eight-card fit, they are smiling. It’s your job to wipe that smile off their face.