Defence to Strong Club Systems Including

I use a simple but elegant and effective system against Strong Club systems. The basic premis is that you compete at a low level with strong hands and pre-empt with suitably shapely weak hands..

The Basic Defence: Double is for takeout and shows a hand comparable to the opening 1 club. In practice 14+ works well. One level suit bids are strong [opening points but see later for a fuller definition] and are lead directing. Two or higher level suit bids are weak and intended to restrict the openers bidding space.

Extensions: Michaes : For those of you who employ [and presumably love] Michaels Cue bids [showing a major ] then the system needs a minor adaption. With a first round Two Clubs being Michaels then a 1NT overcall shows a weak club hand.

Polish Club: The characteristic of these systems we a particularly interested in is that the opener is two way. The One Club opener is typically strong 16+ or a weak No opener [13-15]. If you do not know what to do against such opponents then adopt the simple defence described.

Note that against a Polish Club the defence is modified with the 1NT overcall weak [5-9] and with a nominal six card club suit sat under the clubber, that is 1C-Pass-1D- 1NT. You hope that partner has the wherewithall to make 2 Clubs or make a competitive club raise. Sat over the one clubber that is 1 C- 1NT then the 1NT shows intermediate values [10-13] with at least 5 clubs.

Why it Works (against Strong Club openers): Susceptibility to Pre-empts: Any system that starts Strong Bid [artificial] with a wide ranging response [any relay or most likely 0-7 negative] has potential issues in describing its true characteristics [how strong is opener, how weak is responder and which suits are held]. Pre-empts by opponents limit the ability of the opening pair to fully define their hands.

Value of competing: Winning the race to 1NT tends to work well [particularly at pairs] but in a competitive auction the race to 2 spades tends to be pivotal. Telling you opponents you are weak and distributional tends to aid them not you in both bidding and play so you need a reason for bidding. Telling partner you want to compete the part score or what to lead when the opponents buy the contract should be the focus.

Targetted situations: Often you are trying to muddy the waters where opener is 16+ with their partner 5-7. You should assume that you will not keep them out of game [undoubled] where 16+ is opposite 8+ but you might give them an unfortunate choice as to the correct game or slam.

Getting the opponents system to work against them: Opponents may find it difficult to double you for penalties or reluctant to do so even where their system permits this. So you may get away with an ‘iffy’ jump overcall even when vulnerable. For the more faint hearted the defence does allow you to pass as an alternative to the bid you were considering.

Why it Works (against Polish Club openers):

Just assume you are competing the part score. Point Ranges I tend to be relaxed about boundary conditions of weak and strong hands sometimes upgrading or downgrading 10, 11 (or even 12 ?) point hands [depending on vulnerability and the strength of long suits]. I might happily make a ‘strong’ one level overcall with a good 5 or 6 card suit and a ten or eleven count but then again make a weak jump overcall [example 1 club – two Spades] with a ten or possibly 11 count [and a six card suit]. Feel free to modify the values for partnership agreements re what weak or strong bids might actually mean and go with what works for you.

Bidding Level Generally the longer your suit the higher you pre-empt. It can help partner if you are disciplined in your pre-empts [two level shows six cards, three level seven cards, four level 7+ cards but though weak guaranteeing a probable six loser hand NV and five loser hand Vul [as per rule of 500 for opening pre-empts]. Partner now may raise you to the level of the fit. Do not be timid but be careful of being too cavalier when vulnerable.

Against a Polish Club system I have rarely used high level pre-empts as their weaker variant is more likely. Get the flavour of the hand across to partner for competitive decisions.

Finally *The full defence to Polish Club for you is: Double 14+ [for takeout]; one level suit bids natural and strong; 1NT is 10-13 in second 5+ clubs, 5-9 in 4th position 6+ clubs; 2 Clubs shows both majors. Higher level bids are weak and pre-emptive [5-11]

*Note once you are into using the system whatever flavour of the defence you use for Polish Club should be also used for Strong Club or similar systems.

*A useful part of any defence to strong club systems is to open light [provided it conforms to the rule of 18]

*The defence does not specifically identify 5-5 hands which superficially seems at variance with for example the Truscott defence to Strong Club. In my view identifying a source of tricks is more important than rank where the probability of winning the contract is small. Against the Polish Club and particularly playing pairs use your judgement to decide which is most important. Bear in mind that hands with length and strength divided may well defend better than they declare.

*This defence [also a very complex alternative] were constructed as part of the development of a and subsequently used against another group developing a Polish Club system. My main contribution [which was otherwise minimal] was to present the case for the [simple] defence using otherwise natural systems and involving many hands and many hours on the internet.

Geoff Bailey 2018