Game Tries in Competition

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rod
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Game Tries in Competition

Post by rod »

Here's an important principle that I don't see discussed very much in the literature but is common among top players.

Suppose you open 1 and the auction is 1 - (2♣) - 2 - (3♣). You have some extra values and want to invite game in hearts. The way to do this is to bid 3. In this way you also have the options of bidding 3 just to compete (typically with minimum values and a sixth heart), or doubling for penalty. Your 3 says nothing about diamonds, it just happens to be the only suit available for this.

Next, suppose it goes 1 - (2) - 2 - (3). Now there is no intermediate suit bid available for a game try. In this case we use the double as a game try, giving up on a penalty double, and 3 is still just competing. This is called a "Maximal Double" and is further described here:

https://www.bridgebum.com/maximal_double.php

Now consider 1♠ - (2♣) - 2♠ - (3♣). Here there are two intermediate suits that you can use as a game try, and I suggest picking the one that most closely matches your game tries without competition -- perhaps a suit where you have length or something of value.

This same principle applies when yours is the overcalling side. For example you overcall 1 in this auction: (1♣) - 1 - (2♣) - 2 - (3♣). 3 is the game try and other choices are natural as above.
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