Two-suited Overcalls

When you have a genuinely two-suited hand, 5-5 or better, it is worth getting into the auction even when you are not strong. You have two chances of finding a fit with partner, and if you do catch one, the hand usually plays well. Of course, a problem is that if you finish up defending, declarer pretty much has a blueprint of how to play the hand. But that’s a trade-off that many people are willing to make.

There are various methods for showing a two-suiter with one bid. With all these overcalls, the high-card strength should be concentrated in the suits. Generally, the calls are most often used as pre-emptive weapons, and you don’t want to mislead partner into making a sacrifice that turns out to be a phantom because you have an unexpected ace or two showing up in your short suits. A common idea is to play the bids as weak or strong. With a weak hand, you make the overcall and then keep quiet. With a strong hand, you make the overcall and then bid again. If you have a middling sort of hand, you don’t use the two-suited overcall, just bid one of your suits and hope to get the other one mentioned later. Exactly what constitutes weak, middling and strong is a subject for debate. A common sort of arrangement would be 7-11hcp = weak, 16+hcp = strong.

The Unusual No-Trump is a 2NT overcall to show the minors. This is usually generalized to say it shows the two lowest unbid suits, so that after a 1D opening, for example, you can overcall 2NT to show clubs and hearts.

This seems easy, but the mistake a lot of people make is to overlook that 2NT is occasionally needed as a natural overcall. For starters, 2NT over an opponents weak two opening is similar to a 1NT overcall of a one-level opening. And even over a one-bid, in 4th seat 2NT is generally natural, for example:
(1H) – Pass – (Pass) - 2NT or
 (1H) – Pass – (2H) – 2NT
In both these cases, the 2NT overcall is natural, something similar to a 2NT opening bid, around 20 points with hearts stopped. It is also worth mentioning 1C openings. If the opponents play a “short club”, meaning it may only be a doubleton, you may want to discount that as being a bid suit and have your Unusual NT show both minors – at least it’s something to discuss. The same issue arises if they play a strong club system and a 1D opening may not have many diamonds.

The other really common two-suited overcall is the Michaels cue-bid. (1minor) – 2minor cue-bid shows both majors. (1major) – 2major cue-bid shows the other major plus an unspecified minor. Advancer can bid 2NT to ask for the minor. Some people play that 2NT is a constructive way to ask, while bidding 3C is simply “pass or correct” with no interest in going higher.

The advantage of Michaels is that it only uses the cue-bid, and covers a couple of the most important situations. The weakness is that your partner doesn’t always know both suits immediately (which may limit his ability to pre-empt), and that even with both UNT and Michaels in play, there are still some two-suiters not covered. For example, over a 1D opening, neither bid handles a spade-club two-suiter. If you want to be able to cover all combinations, you have to use a third bid, and the one usually sacrificed is the 3C jump overcall. For example, the method known as Ghestem (after its inventor, Pierre Ghestem) uses (in the original version)
2NT = the two lower unbid suits
3C = the two higher unbid suits
qbid = the highest plus the lowest
and of course there are variations on this.

One other set of overcalls worth mentioning is Leaping Michaels. Over an opponent’s weak two opening, jumps to 4 of a minor show two-suiters. Over 2H or 2S, a jump overcall of 4C or 4D shows the bid minor plus the other major, strong but not forcing. Over a weak or natural 2C or 2D (perhaps a Precision 2C that shows 11-15hcp with 5 or 6 clubs), a jump cue-bid shows both majors. A jump to 4 of the other minor shows the bid suit plus an unspecified major.

This hardly ever comes up, but it’s worth having in the back of your mind just in case. It uses bids that aren’t likely to be needed for anything else, and if you do happen to get the right hand for it, it could be a life-saver.