Tools of Competitive Bidding

The basic tools for competition during the bidding are:

- Hand Evaluation	- Takeout Double
- Overcalls	- Negative Double
- Balancing

undergo dramatic change in value as the bidding progresses and re-evaluating them is vital to good bidding.

Our overcalls and takeout doubles are fairly standard, but they are used much more often than in social bridge.

Our distributional overcalls are shown by conventions which promise two 5 card suits. In this way, we can compete with two suits as well as with one.

Balancing calls, which may be a suit or Notrump bid or a double, are seldom used in social bridge, but are a must in competition. Failure to balance is important, too.

Sacrifice bids are also more common in competitive bridge, as hands are played independently of one another. There is no fear of giving up 1100 and the opponents still winning the rubber on the next hand.

There are no special Sacrifice Bidding sections -- Sacrificing  occurs throughout competitive bridge bidding.

(c) Robert D. McConnell, 1998  All Rights Reserved