Saturday, July 22, 2006 10:57 AM

Hand Evaluation – Misfits ( Overbidding )

PITBULLS:

Overbidding by experts is not just a random event. Tom Gandolfo as been accused of “liking to bid” . Quite often his overbids turn out successfully. Why ? Tom uses hand evaluation to pick his spots. Quite often when Tom “overbids” he has a singleton or void in the opponent’s suit. This is gold when evaluating your hand. Quite often when Tom overbids he has a 5-5 or 6-5 distribution or a long suit. Again this is hand evaluation rather than overbidding.

There is good overbidding as opposed to bad overbidding. Bad overbidding is bidding in misfit auctions , using poor hand evaluation or ignoring the 40 HCP’s in the deck rule. If you mid in a misfit auction , quite often you are entering a mine field & just giving them an option to extract a huge penalty. Let the opponents play misfits. You know that you have wasted value in their suits , you do not fit partner’s suit or you have bad quality HCP’s. You know that your hand should be devalued but you overbid anyway. Some instances you are just not aware how many HCP’s exist in the deck. You should be able to count the HCP’s from the opponents bidding , so bidding 3NT on a flat 19 to play when the opponents have told you that they have the remaining 21 is horrific overbidding.

Overbidding is also defined as using poor hand evaluation. Quite often when one partner overbids & game is made , partner would have invited or driven to game anyway. My partner held ♠Qxxxx ♥Jxx ♦Jxx ♣Kx & Maurice opened 1♣ , I doubled & Susan bid 1♥. You have 7 HCP consisting of a poorly located ♣K , a queen & two jacks along with a balanced hand. Certainly a very poor hand using hand evaluation , but enough to freely bid 1♠. Partner invites by raising to 2♠ so now you bid game & it makes for +420. Now back up & overbid by bidding 2♠ & partner leaps to 4♠. The game is a reasonable undertaking not because you overbid , but due to partner having a very strong hand in spades. What if partner had less ? Your overbid would not have worked & you go for a needless minus. You are not even close to having an invitational hand.

When you have a choice of an underbid or an overbid , use hand evaluation as your guide. How well do you fit partner’s hand ? Should you be encouraging partner ? A Tormentee held this hand tonight ♠x ♥QJx ♦A10xx ♣AKQxx & opened 1♣ . Partner bid 1♠ but RHO crawled in with a 2♥ so do you overbid with a diamond reverse (a game force when pushing partner to the 4 level for a preference ) or do you underbid by bidding 3♣ ? Neither , I manufacture a bid of 2NT to show my playing strength & heart stopper. Partner passes 2NT & you go down one but they can make 3♥ . If you reverse into diamonds , you end up playing 5♦X for 3 down.

Back to good overbidding . Location , location & location are 3 very good reasons for overbidding. Your partner opens 2♠ vul so you were planning to re pre-empt to 3♠ with ♠Axx ♥Kx ♦Kxx ♣J1098x but RHO doubles . The odds have now changed as your kings have “grown up” . So instead of bidding 3♠ you bid 4♠. Both Aces are on side so you pick up +620 & Tom is accused of “overbidding”.

Another common place to overbid is after the 1NT overcall. The HCP’s are behind the opening bid so all of a sudden hands that would have invited become game bids. Why ? The finesses are bound to work & partner knows how to play the hand for endplay & squeeze purposes. Inviting opposite a T/O double is done lighter for the same reasons. Slams are sometimes bid on “positional makes” as the pre-empter is behind the big hand so finesses are odds on to succeed.

Use the fact that the location of the cards in the opponents suits “sits right” for overbidding purposes. A QJxx behind the openers major are promoted to two tricks so quite often turn a 1NT bid to a 2NT bid or a 2NT bid to a 3NT bid . This is standard expert “overbidding” . Bidding the table is another way experts overbid. I held ♠Q98x ♥J9 ♦AJ9x ♣Q10x so I passed , heard Osama pass & Kiz opens 1♦. Vinnie Nowlan bid 2♠ so what has the “table action” told me ? With the pre-empt to the left of the biggest hand of the table ( Kiz ) , the finesses are going to win. There is a decent chance that I have two spade stoppers with the length in their suit , so my 2NT bid turned into an “overbid” of 3NT.

As expected , all the cards were on side but we were in 6♦ which made an overtrick. When terrorists are out to get you with frequent pre-empting they are giving you information. If you have length in their suit , you know that their communications are fowled up for defensive purposes. They locate cards for you , flash their distribution to assist you in the play of the hand. Terrorism is sometimes suicidal for them when experts refuse to be blown up by their actions.

Overbidding by experts is quite often “dynamic hand evaluation” where finesses are taken during the auction & you use the “table” to determine your overbid. In Montreal , a French team told Tom “I hear you like to bid” . Quite frankly among all my partners , I feel Tom is an underbidder despite his Canada wide reputation. It is Kiz who is crazy J