Equal Level Conversion

 

Normally, when we make a take-out Double, and then bid a new suit, we are showing a very good hand, one which was just too good to overcall originally.  For example:

 

♠ KQJ876                  After RHO opens 1♣, this lovely 4-loser hand is a shade too good for a

♥ A3                           simple overcall of 1♠.  The danger is all too obvious, Partner needs so

♦ AKJ5                       little for us to be able to make game.  So we would start with a Double,

♣ 9                              planning to bid Spades later … note that we can ignore the guideline

                                    of having at least 3 cards in the unbid majors, but only because we have

                                    a very good hand.

 

♠ KQJ876                   A similar hand, but with a weaker Diamond holding … this one we

♥ A3                            would overcall 1♠, the modern tendency being to overcall with

♦ AQ7                         stronger hands than was customary in days gone by.

♣ 98                                       

 

♠ KQJ87                     We like the upper end of our overcall range to be around 18 HCPs,

♥ AK                           but there is no hard and fast rule … this 19-count, for example, has 5

♦ KQJ                         losers, and we’d deem it to be a 1♠ overcall.  By the same token there

♣ 987                          will be hands that are weaker than 18 HCPs but which are just too

                                    good to overcall, such as the next example:

 

♠ KQJ876                   This one is somewhere in between the first two hands, and we’d rate

♥ A3                            this nice 16-point collection as a tad too good for a simple overcall …

♦ AQ75                       we’d double and then bid Spades.  The fact that it happens to be a

♣ 9                              a 4-loser hand is not entirely coincidental, that happens to be a

                                    pretty good benchmark … with more losers you are probably looking

                                    at an overcall.

 

The Exception

 

There is a situation where we can double and then bid a new suit without showing a strong hand.  It’s a conventional agreement, known as Equal Level Conversion (ELC), here are the two auctions in question:

 

            1♥        Dbl       Pass    2♣

            Pass    2♦

 

            1♠        Dbl       Pass    2♣

            Pass    2♦

 

Playing ELC, that 2♦ bid does not show a strong one-suited hand, as per the earlier examples … instead it shows opening values, shortness in Clubs (less than 3), 4 cards in the unbid major, and typically a 5-card Diamond suit.  So, in the second auction, perhaps:

 

            ♠ 76    

            ♥ AQ42

            ♦ KQJ76

            ♣ 93

 

If you play ELC, it raises the question of what to do holding one of those strong 4-loser types of hand, with length in Diamonds.  The answer is that the doubler must jump on the next round of bidding as in this sequence:

 

            1♠       Dbl      Pass    2♣

            Pass    3♦

 

The Benefit

 

Why play ELC?  Holding that previously mentioned hand we could just overcall 2♦, of course, but that will likely lose our 4-4 Heart fit if we have one.  The ELC agreement allows us to show 4 Hearts and a Diamond suit.

 

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