No doubt most of those who played this board thought: what a bore. Nearly every East opened 1NT and played there. Most made exactly one, some made an overtrick, and a couple of declarers found a way to fail to make what should have been an easy enough seven tricks. So, if you were one of the lucky pairs to defeat 1NT, you did well. But not as well as the one pair that was using the principle of not allowing 1NT to be passed out if there was any way to compete. Those readers who have followed the “Evil” way of competing against 1NT will be interested in this one.
This is what happened:
Board 1 from Tuesday 11/08/2020
Dealer N Nil Vul
North passed and East opened 1NT. Two passes followed, but when it came back to North, he DOUBLED. This bid was asystemic because North would normally have 15+ HCP to double. However, NS were playing “Evil” against 1NT, so South reasoned as follows: North must have 11 HCP to have passed as dealer, and then doubled 1NT. North clearly wasn’t prepared to sell out to 1NT, but did not have a hand that fitted with the “Evil” overcalls. Therefore a completely balanced hand or semi balanced including, most likely, a four card spade suit. Remember that there is provision for 4-4 hands with four hearts in the Evil overcalls? South had only 8 HCP therefore was not prepared to do battle against 1NT doubled, and, drawing the inference that North surely had a minimum of three spades, bid 2S! This contract should have been down one, but the defence was not accurate, as so often happens, and declarer actually made 2S, for 110 to NS. This was a clear top, but even -50 would have scored over 90%. Personally, if I were North and playing any other system of overcalls over 1NT, I would still have doubled, because South could have a good enough hand to pass and extract a decent penalty, and with fewer HCP, South would bid their longest suit. Mind you, a good partnership does require South not to forget that North has passed as dealer, and to draw the right inferences.
QT54
A85
654
AJ3