Defensive Bidding Release 7.0 Paul F. Dubois Jul 31, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Preliminaries 1 1.1 Topics Covered.........................................1 2 Notrump Defenses 2 2.1 Landy..............................................2 2.2 Meckwell............................................2 2.3 Modified Cappelletti......................................2 2.4 Bloomen............................................3 2.5 Woolsey............................................3 2.5.1 Defenses to Woolsey.................................3 2.6 Mohan.............................................3 3 Runouts 5 3.1 Introduction to Runouts....................................5 3.1.1 Use The Runout Over Conventional Doubles?....................5 3.2 Meckwell Escapes.......................................5 3.3 The Handy Runout.......................................6 3.3.1 Direct Seat Doubles..................................6 3.3.2 Fourth Seat Doubles.................................6 3.4 Guoba.............................................7 3.4.1 Direct Seat Doubles..................................7 3.4.2 Fourth Seat Doubles.................................7 3.5 Escape From Moscow, or D.O.N.T...............................7 4 Two-Suited Competitive Bids8 4.1 Sandwich 1N..........................................8 4.2 Extended Michaels.......................................8 4.3 Top and Bottom Cue Bid....................................9 5 Special Doubles 10 5.1 Support Doubles and Redoubles................................ 10 5.2 Responsive Doubles...................................... 10 5.3 Maximal Doubles....................................... 10 6 Interesting Gadgets 12 6.1 Mathe Defense To A Big Club................................. 12 i 6.2 Lead-directing Raise Over Partner’s Preempt......................... 12 7 Lebensohl 13 7.1 Lebensohl After We Open 1N................................. 13 7.1.1 Introduction...................................... 13 7.1.2 The 2N Relay..................................... 14 7.1.3 Stayman........................................ 14 7.1.4 About Doubles.................................... 14 7.1.5 Lebensohl’s Weaknesses............................... 15 7.1.6 Lebensohl Details................................... 15 7.1.7 Lebensohl Over Artificial Overcalls......................... 15 7.1.8 Three-level Overcalls................................. 16 7.2 Answering Takeout Doubles Of Weak Two Bids....................... 16 7.3 When They Overcall Our Two Club Opener.......................... 16 7.4 Lebensohl Over Reverses................................... 16 7.5 Simplified Lebensohl...................................... 16 7.6 Good - Bad 2N......................................... 17 8 Rubensohl and Transfer Lebensohl 18 8.1 Transfer Defenses to Overcalls Over 1N............................ 18 8.2 Transfer Lebensohl versus Rubensohl............................. 18 9 My Rubensohl: R 20 9.1 When Does R Apply?..................................... 20 9.1.1 Examples....................................... 20 9.2 The R Bids........................................... 21 9.2.1 Transfers to Suits................................... 21 9.2.2 Trying For Notrump................................. 21 9.2.3 Takeout Doubles................................... 21 9.2.4 Transfer-Cue Bids................................... 22 9.2.5 Four-Level Bids.................................... 22 9.2.6 Three-Level Overcalls................................ 22 9.3 Why R is Hard......................................... 22 9.4 Show A Minor Or Just Go?.................................. 23 9.5 Examples............................................ 23 9.5.1 Examples When Our Suit Is Lower.......................... 23 9.5.2 Examples When Our Suit Is Higher......................... 24 9.5.3 Examples When Our Suit Is Diamonds........................ 25 9.5.4 Example Of A Takeout Double............................ 25 9.5.5 Example of A Transfer-Cue.............................. 25 9.6 Problems............................................ 25 9.6.1 Answers........................................ 26 9.7 The Path Not Taken: Ask and Stayman............................ 27 10 Glossary 29 Index 33 ii CHAPTER ONE PRELIMINARIES This book is written for the advanced-intermediate • Descriptions of some miscellaneous gadgets. to advanced bridge player. It is a supplement to my book, Bidding Notes. Note: Some of these conventions are mutually ex- Please note the rant in that book about not playing clusive! too many conventions. To which, we must now add: Every technical book should have an index, and this Warning: Some of these conventions are mutu- one does. ally exclusive! In electronic manifestations of this book, there are many operable links in the text. This book is avail- This volume was split from the Advanced Bidding able as a PDF, as a book for electronic readers, and book in order to keep the size of each more man- can be rendered into web pages. ageable. This volume contains the defensive conven- Please see Bidding Notes for intermediate bidding, tions while the offensive conventions are in the other information on how to contribute, resources, ac- book. knowledgements, and a glossary. These books do not get you to “expert” in bidding. Please see Advanced Bidding for a large number of Some of the conventions have many variations or fol- offensive conventions. lowups not covered here. But this set will go a long way to making you the best non-expert bidder in your Please see Imprecise Precision for my version of the club. Precision System. 1.1 Topics Covered • Defenses to their opening 1N • Escape strategies for when our 1N opener is doubled. • Lebensohl and Rubensohl, two related conven- tions for dealing with interference over our 1N opener, and which also can be used in some other competitive situations. These systems are much more difficult, and much more useful, than some of the more pro- saic conventions. Learning them is indepen- dent from everything else. 1 CHAPTER TWO NOTRUMP DEFENSES This section explains some more defenses after your just chooses his best major, or (rarely) bids a minor opponents open or overcall 1N. Some can also be suit with very poor majors but a good long minor. used in balancing a passing-out 1N. (See Balancing Woolsey (page 3) below is an up-gunned Landy. in Bidding Notes.) Two-suited hands are often more powerful than their 2.2 Meckwell HCP count alone would indicate. We’ve already learned the basic Unusual 2N and Michael’s Cuebid. For interfering with their 1N opening, we have Cap- In this modification of D.O.N.T., the double works pelletti and D.O.N.T. harder in order to make 2~ and 2♠ natural. After opponents open 1N, either in direct seat, or after two In all these methods, the two-suited bids promise at passes by partnership agreement, least 5-4 in the suits. Vulnerability should be con- sidered. Any bid which may force to the three level • X! Long minor or both majors requires extra points or shape, comparatively. Response: 2|!(relay); then the doubler In case you want to get creative and invent your own, passes, corrects to 2}, or bids 2~ to show both a note on ACBL regulations: majors. • X or 2| can show 0 specified suits. In that •2 |! Clubs and a major suit sense they are privileged. It is ok if 2| shows •2 }! Diamonds and a major suit an unspecified suit or 2| shows clubs and a higher suit or X shows an unspecified suit. •2 ~ Shows long hearts •2 } can show “a one-suited hand with an un- •2 ♠ Shows long spades specified major suit”, or any specific suit with • 2N Shows both minors an unknown or known companion such as “both majors” or “diamonds and a higher suit.” You may enjoy combining Meckwell with the Meck- well Escapes (page 5) runout. • Other bids must show at least one definite suit. E.g., 2~ can be hearts and a minor, or hearts and a four card minor, but not any major and a 2.3 Modified Cappelletti minor. In this modification of Cappelletti, the 2| bid works 2.1 Landy harder in order to make 2~ and 2♠ natural. After opponents open 1N, either in direct seat, or after two passes by partnership agreement, Landy is simple: 2| shows both majors, at least 5- 4. According to the Bridge Guys website, Landy can • X Equal hand, penalty-oriented claim to be the very first conventional method. Many •2 |! Diamonds or, a minor and a major. variations have evolved with respect to the replies by advancer, but for a simple agreement, the advancer 2 Defensive Bidding, Release 7.0 Advancer bids 2}!(relay), and intervenor then 2.5.1 Defenses to Woolsey bids pass, or his major. Advancer can then ask for the minor with 2N! (good hand) or 3|! How should you defend against the Woolsey 2}? (pass or correct). Experts concede that Woolsey is difficult to defend •2 }! Both majors against, which is why there was resistance to putting it into the GCC. However, at the club level most play- •2 ~ Shows long hearts ers will survive pretty well with stolen bids and com- •2 ♠ Shows long spades mon sense. • 2N Shows both minors One problem here is that you don’t have a Stayman bid unless you agree to use 3|. •3 | Long clubs Responder can always pass first, of course, and see what their major is. Passing first and then bidding 2.4 Bloomen should be stronger than immediate action. A second double should be penalty oriented. Bloomen is related to Cappelletti. All 2-level suit More sophisticated defenses are based on Lebensohl bids are natural long suits. A double is a relay to 2|, (page 12). and then intervenor bids one of the Capp two-suited bids: 2} for both majors,