Thursday Bridge Club: Introducing Lebensohl

24h February – Board 24: Love All. Dealer West.

After partner has doubled a weak two and the next hand has passed, it can prove difficult for the responder to the doubler to differentiate between a goodish hand – say eight points or more – and a load of old junk, bidding because he has to rather than because he wants to. Because of this it is advisable to add the Lebensohl convention to your armoury. This is how it works: with a respectable hand responder to the doubler simply bids his suit, but with a weak hand he bids 2NT, which forces the doubler to bid 3C. Now responder passes if that is his suit or bids his longest suit otherwise. That would clear up any problems on the hand shown above when the bidding might go:

West	North	East	South
2S	Dbl	No	3C
No	3NT	End

3C shows values making the 3NT bid easy to find. If South had the same hand but with few values he would bid 2NT and pass the forced 3C response. The only drawback to this very useful convention is that you cannot bid 2NT in a natural sense, but that is hardly a problem. Just bid 3NT instead! As an aside and not wishing to sound picky, I think East should have bid 3S over the double, in effect bidding to the total number of trumps held. 3S is only one down but the likely upshot is that N/S will end up in 5C, and here a correct guess in diamonds will be needed to make the contract.

7 comments:

Robin27 February 2011 at 10:49
Sadly, you failed in not wishing to sound picky. I feel well and truly picked. East (just my little joke!)

East.
Robin27 February 2011 at 14:40
Wow, the lebensohl convention (over 1NT, not the over a weak 2 variety) I've read about at : http://www.bridgeguys.com/Conventions/Lebensohl.html
seems very complicated and endless. Do you have a more concise explanation covereing the (2?) different situations it is used in, what the responses are, and how it fits in all the other bids a responder could make after a natural or conventional overcall over 1NT?
Dave27 February 2011 at 16:22
Lebensohl is also used as you have discovered after your partner's 1NT bid has been overcalled. So say partner opens 1NT and the next hand bids 2S. You might want to bid 3C now as either competing or forcing, depending on what sort of hand you have. Using Lebensohl you bid 3C as forcing and 2NT to demand 3C, after which you pass if clubs is your suit or else bid 3D or 3H if that is where you live. But it can be very complicated and there are further ramifications which I won't go into here. I do not use Lebensohl in this situation myself but transfers instead. So if I have a weak hand with hearts I would bid 3D after the 2S intervention and pass the 3H response. Obviously if I had a good hand I would transfer and then make another bid as if there had been no intervention.
It is certainly not obvious in the actual hand to bid 3S after the double but experience tells me it is right more often than not. And Robin you are the master at bidding to the total number of trumps held after an overcall and this is much the same. If you like you could imagine that South had opened and that West had made a weak-jump overcall of 2S. Now I just know that you would have raised the ante if given the chance.
Alan hedley28 February 2011 at 15:45
David,
This is the second time you have suggested a weak two bid with only one top card. I though you should have two of the top three or three of the top four ?

Alan
Dave28 February 2011 at 16:00
Maybe in the early days there were some strict ideas about suit quality when opening a weak two, but not any more. The Ogust response of 2NT asks for point count and suit quality remember. Over 2NT 3C shows 5-7 points and only one top honour (of three). 3D shows 5-7 points and two honours, 3H shows 8-9 points and one honour while 3S shows 8-9 points and two honours. I held that West hand last Thursday and was a little apprehensive about opening it 2S not because I only had the queen but because the intermediates were so awful. But the obstructive nature of the bid means that sometimes risks have to be taken.
Pat H8 March 2011 at 20:44
If Lebensohl met Doversohl he'd probably say your plaice or mine?
Pat H
Robin8 March 2011 at 22:25
Pat, seems you're a dab hand at this. I don't want to carp on but It has left me floundering for a suitable response.

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