Wednesday, July 13, 2005 2:08 AM

DONT after NT Overcall

 

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 :

 

 

After A One Notrump Overcall by Opponents

 

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.