When your partner makes a simple overcall at the one level, he could have as few as 8 HCP or as many as 16.

If you have 10+ points and support for partner’s suit, or very good all round strength with stops in the opponent’s suit and are thinking of No Trumps, you might have a chance of game if he’s at the upper end, so it’s useful to have a way of asking him how strong he is.  You can do this by bidding the opponent’s suit, e.g.   (1H) – 1S – (P) – 2H*

*This is called an Unassuming Cue Bid (UCB).   It asks your partner to tell you how strong his overcall is.  (It’s called ‘unassuming’ because it doesn’t say whether or not you’ve got any cards in that suit)

If he’s a minimum overcaller (8 -11 HCP) he simply rebids his suit at the lowest possible level and you pass unless you’re very strong.

If he’s stronger (12-16) he bids anything else which tells you something useful about his hand e.g. he rebids his suit with a jump to show at least 6 cards, bids another suit in which he has good cards, or even bids No Trumps if he has good stops in the opponent’s suit.  This will help you to decide how to bid on.

The Rule of Eleven
When you are absolutely sure that the lead card is the 4^th highest of the suit, you subtract the number of the card lead, from the number 11, the result is the number of HIGHER cards contained in the hands of the partner of the leader and the declarer and the dummy.

This information is useful not only to the declarer, but also to the partner of the leader, who can apply the same mathematical calculation. This information can be useful in deciding to play which card, either from the hand of the partner of the leader, or the hand of the declarer or from dummy.  For example, card lead 7 Diamonds, subtract from 11 = 4 cards higher in the other 3 hands.  You know how many is in Dummy and your own and can then deduce how many in the other hand.  Against no trump contracts, because the lead is usually 4^th highest, this rule is one of the most useful.

The Rule of Nine ~

The Rule of Nine can assist the partner, who has been forced to respond after a double, in arriving at the best action. The concept is explained below: ~

When your partner decides to reopen the auction with a double, then you should take some action. The Rule of Nine assists you in deciding to take the correct action.  After a reopening double, you should either: ~

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1. Bid your BEST suit. ~
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2. Raise the suit of your partner with a minimum of two or more, but no less. ~
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3. Pass for penalty when holding length and defensive values in the opponents’ suit. ~

To help you decide which action is best, the Rule of Nine should be actioned as follows: ~

1. You add: ~

·         The level of the contract ~

·         The number of cards held in the suit of the opponent ~

·         The number of honours held in the suit of the opponent (include the 10) ~

2. If the calculated number is nine or more, then you pass for penalty. ~

3. If the calculated number is eight or less, then you should bid. ~

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For example, if you as South, in the following auction, ~

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N. 1 S     E.  2H     S.  P.     W.  P. ~

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hold Hearts AQ987, which is the suit of the opponent, then the calculation is: ~

Level = 2
Number of cards held in the suit of the opponent = 5
Number of honours held in the suit of the opponent = 2
Total = 9 ~

Rule of Nine: South should Pass. ~

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Another example, if you, in the above example, held Hearts AQ97, which is the suit of the opponent, then the calculation is: ~

Level = 2
Number of cards held in the suit of the opponent = 4
Number of honours held in the suit of the opponent = 2
Total = 8~

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Rule of Nine: South should take some competitive action.~