Change the Suit for a Reason!

1. E-W vulnerable

East elected not to make a pre-emptive jump to 3 hearts on the first round: vulnerable; honours in the opponents’ suit; three doubletons.

West changed the suit which should show at least nine points in response to an overcall. This induced East to make the very bid he was unwilling to make earlier - 3 hearts - but at least there was a hope of finding something useful in dummy after the change-of-suit response. Dummy provided not even one trick! Three off vulnerable.

2. Love all

West was the same West as on hand 1! He must have been afraid that his partner might have made the same kind of revolting change-of-suit response as West made on hand 1. West had a good quality overcall, three-card support for hearts, a heart honour, and a side-suit singleton, yet still declined to support East’s hearts, despite the two heart bids from East. East made eleven tricks.

 Principles:

A.    An overcall is limited to about 16 points.

B.    Overcaller’s partnerchanges the suit with 9+ points, because there might be a game. With fewer points and no fit there will be no game. (Use your judgement!).