Wednesday,
July 13, 2005 2:08 AM
Hand
Evaluation - NT Overcall ( DONT )
PITBULLS:
DONT
stands for “disturbing opponents NT” which usually
means you are
disturbing the opponents 1NT opener. Established partnerships have their own toys of choice to
do the job. You can also disturb
the opponents NT overcall !! Quite often when
partner opens , you have a hand that a penalty double
is risky but you want to compete & get
them out of their NT contract. In other words, you want to disturb
things. Bidding 2♣ or 2♦ naturally does not
disturb anybody. Bid 3♣ or 3♦ with those hands ! QJ10xxx
of clubs or KJ109xx of diamonds are pre-emptive bids at
the 3 level. Single suited minor hands are shown by jumps. This leaves 2♣ & 2♦ open for another
interpretation. DONT comes to mind.
Many
experts play DONT as the tool of choice for this task. DONT is not played if
partner opens 1♦ but is on with the other suits. Here are the basics of DONT which will vary depending on the suit partner opened :
1§ 1N 2§ clubs and higher
2¨ diamonds
and higher
2© hearts
and spades
2ª spade
one suiter
1© 1N 2§ clubs
and a second suit, not hearts
2¨ diamonds
and spades
2© heart
raise
2ª spade
one suiter
1ª 1N 2§ clubs
and a second suit, not spades
2¨ diamonds
and hearts
2© heart
one suiter
2ª spade
raise
Double is penalty and jumps are pre-emptive. Note the absence of
any DONT responses after a 1♦ opener. Its
best to keep 2♥/♠ as natural.
An alternative to the above is a simple structure advocated by Kiz Fung. She suggests just
play a treatment after partner opens a minor . A simple raise of the minor shows the majors.
This treatment works quite well also. I feel you need something to disturb their 1NT overcalls
though.