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 Overcalls
"Let's Light Up" by Marti Ronemus

Listen up: I don't care how pretty they are, it's time to put away the Christmas lights. Today. (Well, after the quiz and hand.) But first, a little history. Christmas lights became a tradition back in the late 1700s when folks put real, lit candles on their trees. So many accidents occurred that insurance companies refused to pay claims.

Then along came Edison. in 1879 his light bulbs were very new, so he strung a bunch of them together and strung them outside to show them off. It was only a very short step till Edward Johnson (an Edison VP) strung lights on a tree and started our passion for lighting up trees and every other stationary object in sight.

Back In The Day though, lights were only for the rich. People needed generators and a "wireman" who would wire each bulb. In today's dollars, it cost about $9000 to light a tree. Wow!

So let's light up our bridge game today, with sparkly answers. We're tackling Overcalls. We need a Darn Good Suit of five or more cards, and between 7 and 17 pts.

Question 1

  Your Hand
♠ K 4
♥ K Q J 3 2
♦ 10 5 4 3
♣ 3 2 		 
Q: 1 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♣
?


 Your choice:
A: 1♥: We've got a Darn Good Suit. While we don't have an opening hand, we would welcome a Heart lead from Pard. We are only at the one-level, so we are just fine.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
♠ K 4
♥ Q J 4 3 2
♦ J 5 4 3
♣ Q 2 		 
Q: 2 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♣
?


 Your choice:
A: Pass: We have the same number of points as last hand, and the same number of Hearts. BUT! This hand has no sparkle. Our suit isn't that great, our honors are scattered, the ♣Q may be useless. This is nothing but trouble and we're going to leave it in the dark.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
♠ A K 8
♥ J 9 7 6 4 3
♦ 2
♣ A J 4 		 
Q: 3 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♣
?


 Your choice:
A: 1♥: We like to have a Darn Good Suit when we overcall, BUT! We have an opening hand and a six-carder. We would open this hand, so we should be willing to overcall it. If the opponents get the contract, Pard may be a little disappointed in our suit, but if he doesn't advance our overcall, he is probably very short in Hearts and may get a ruff.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
♠ A Q 4 3
♥ K 10 9 2
♦ K Q 8
♣ K 5 		 
Q: 4 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♥
?


 Your choice:
A: 1 No-trump: When we overcall 1 No-trump, we are promises a solid No-trump opener of our own, PLUS sound stoppers in the opponents suit. We've got that. We want to light up the tree.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
♠ A Q 4
♥ 8 7 5
♦ K Q 8 4
♣ K Q 9 2 		 
Q: 5 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♥
?


 Your choice:
A: Pass: We've got the points, but we don't have stoppers in Their suit. We can't double because that would promise four Spades. Here's something to memorize: A PASS in the overcall seat doesn't say, "I don't have anything." It says, "I don't have a bid." This is a difference with an enormous distinction. Pard will pay attention to the bidding and infer that we've got a passel of points... but didn't have a bid.

And now, our hand.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

Overall Results

Your results:   out of    Average: 

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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