Thursday, June 12, 2003 8:24 PM

Negative Free Bids

PITBULLS:

Negative free bids for 2/1 in competition do not make much sense to me as written . The responder can have a good hand quite often and the negative double with good hands just complicates matters. However , there is a place for negative free bids . Oven an overcall by partner & an intervening bid , a non forcing free bid would be very useful for lead directing and sacrifice purposes.

Negative free bids complement fit showing jumps in competition after an overcall . If you do have your own suit and a fit with partner then jump in the suit . Otherwise your suit bid is a non forcing free bid .

K	x	x	x
Q		x	x
J		x	x
10
9
8

1H and partner overcalls 2D and RHO bids 2H . This is a negative free bid of 2S. There is so much bidding that a rock 2S bid is very unlikely to exist . If by some chance you have one . then you can double and then bid spades. This is unlikely to come up.

K	x	A	x
Q	x	x
J	x	x
10		x
x

Same auction as above but this time you bid 3S as a fit showing jump . Normally a new suit would imply a fit with partner . With negative free bids it does not so we use the fit showing jump.

The concept of negative free bids appeals to me . Getting in there with your suit without forcing values makes a lot of competitive sense. The contortions with negative doubles for the good hands make the bid not worth it though . Overcalls a different matter though just due to the low frequency with having a positive free bid . Negative free bids now make sense.