In a related article, we examined the basic concept of the Lebensohl convention, using a 2NT relay to differentiate between hands of different strength. In that article, we covered the situation in which Lebensohl is most commonly used, after partner’s 1NT opening has been overcalled.
The other primary use many tournament players find for Lebensohl is in responding to partner's take out double of a Weak Two opening.
You will very rarely want to defend a doubled contract at the two-level when partner is short in the suit and LHO has a five or six-card suit sitting over you. Most of the time, therefore, you are forced to bid something in response to partner’s takeout double, even if your hand is virtually useless.
Consider the following hands after the auction begins:
You — ? |
LHO 2 ![]() |
Partner Dbl |
RHO Pass |
Hand A![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand B![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand C![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
None of these situations are very appetizing, are they? Holding Hand A, you want to play in diamonds, but you certainly do not want to suggest any interest in bidding higher.
The answer is to start with the 2NT Lebensohl relay. Over partner’s Three Club response, you would pass if clubs was your long suit, and here you intend to convert to Three Diamonds. This sequence tells partner which suit you want to play and also that you do not have any significant values.
You do not even have a five-card suit in Hand B. At least you have four-card support for the suit that partner is most likely to hold, the other major.
Once again, though, you want to get the bidding to Three Hearts without showing any interest in partner raising. To achieve this, you again start with the 2NT Lebensohl relay:
You — 2NT 3 ![]() |
LHO 2 ![]() Pass All Pass |
Partner Dbl 3 ![]() |
RHO Pass Pass |
Hand C puts you in a truly horrible situation. There is no guarantee of a fit and, what’s more, you are going to have to guess which minor to play.
Wouldn’t it be nice if 2NT asked partner to pick a minor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t (although more on this later). You simply have to start with the 2NT relay and then guess either to pass partner’s Three Clubs or to convert to diamonds.
I recommend passing: for a start you won’t have to be declarer in what could easily be a really hopeless contract.
More to the point, though, the more bids you take, the greater the chance that the opponents will start doubling for penalties.
When partner makes a takeout double of a weak two, the range of hands you could hold is enormous. As we have already seen, you can have almost nothing. You may also have enough to force to game, or even to investigate a slam.
In between those two extremes is still quite a wide gap, though. Let’s divide hands into three groups: weak, invitational and forcing. I don’t like assigning HCP values to unbalanced hands, but to give you some idea of what sort of ranges we are talking about let’s call weak around 0-7 HCP, invitational something like 8-11, and game forcing 12+.
Consider the following hands after the auction begins:
You — ? |
LHO 2 ![]() |
Partner Dbl |
RHO Pass |
Hand D![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand E![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand F![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Compare Hand D to Hand A above and you can see that it would be folly if you have to make the same Three Diamond bid on both of these hands. If you did, ask yourself how partner is ever supposed to judge when to bid on and when to pass Three Diamonds.
If partner has a minimum takeout double, say a 1-4-4-4 shape and just 12-13 HCP, Three Diamonds will surely be the right contract opposite Hand D. Add, say, an extra ace to partner’s hand, though, and your chances of making game must be at least reasonable if not excellent. That hand with the extra ace still does not want to bid any higher if you hold Hand A, though.
Clearly, you need to bid Hand A and Hand D differently.
As we saw above, with Hand A you start with the 2NT Lebensohl relay and then convert Three Clubs to Three Diamonds. With Hand D, you bid Three Diamonds on your first turn, without going through 2NT. This sequence shows a hand in the invitational range mentioned earlier.
Hand E (repeated for convenience)
9 8 6 3
Q 9 8 6 3
4
K Q 5 4
Although Hand E does not quite fall into the 8-11 HCP range I mentioned, it has lots of additional pluses: a singleton, a fifth card in the suit where you expect partner to hold four, no wasted spade values, etc. Indeed, you can see why you should bid an invitational Three Hearts on Hand E when you take a look back at Hand B to see what you might hold when you steer the contract to Three Hearts via the 2NT relay.
Hand F (repeated for convenience)
8 6 4
J 2
A Q 6 4
K J 6 3
Bidding Three Clubs on Hand F comes with no guarantees, but it is the best of the alternatives. You cannot justify forcing to game (showing no spade stop and denying four hearts) when partner need have only a minimum double. Remember that game when you suit is a minor requires you to take eleven tricks. Consequently, you need to be a bit stronger than you might be if you were contemplating bidding game in a major.
If partner passes Three Clubs, you probably will not have missed anything. The good news, is that if he bids on then you are not committed to clubs and you may still get to a game in either diamonds or notrumps.
Your choice of bids at the three-level are limited when you hold game-forcing values in an auction where responder is forced to bid. You have two basic choices: one option to venture beyond 3NT to show your suit, but this should really only be done on wildly distributional hands or hands intending to at least seriously investigate slam.
With most game-going hands, you will employ one of the four sequences detailed in the section on bidding balanced hands in the related Lebensohl article. These four sequences enable you to differentiate between hands with and without a stopper in the opponent’s suit, and either with or without four-card support for partner’s presumed major.
You — 3 ![]() |
LHO 2 ![]() |
Partner Dbl |
RHO Pass |
Cue-bidding the opponent’s suit promises four cards in the unbid major (or in at least one major if the opponent’s suit is a minor). Bidding directly denies a stopper in the opponent’s suit.
You — 3NT |
LHO 2 ![]() |
Partner Dbl |
RHO Pass |
Bidding 3NT denies four cards in the unbid major (or in either major if the opponent’s suit is a minor). Bidding directly denies a stopper in the opponent’s suit.
You — 2NT 3 ![]() |
LHO 2 ![]() Pass |
Partner Dbl 3 ![]() |
RHO Pass Pass |
Again, cue-bidding the opponent’s suit promises four cards in the unbid major (or in at least one major in the opponent’s suit is a minor).
Starting with the Lebensohl 2NT (and then showing a balanced hand by cue-bidding or bidding 3NT) shows a stopper in the opponent’s suit. (“Slow Shows” is the way that many people remember which way around these are played.)
You — 2NT 3NT |
LHO 2 ![]() Pass |
Partner Dbl 3 ![]() |
RHO Pass Pass |
As above, bidding 3NT denies four cards in the unbid major (or in either major in the opponent’s suit is a minor). Starting with the Lebensohl 2NT and then bidding 3NT shows a stopper in the opponent’s suit (“Slow Shows”).
This means that when you have a game-going hand with four hearts and partner doubles a Two Spade overcall for takeout, you do not have to jump all the way to game in hearts, guessing that partner will hold four-card support. You can show your four cards in partner’s likely suit and, if your side does hold a 4-4 fit he will bid game in the suit. On those odd hands when partner does not have four hearts, you can still land in 3NT or, perhaps, investigate game in one or either minor.
The astute amongst you will have noticed that there appears to be a discrepancy between what you are being told here and what you learned when you read the related article on the Lebensohl convention. In that article, you learned that direct bids were game-forcing, whereas here they are only invitational.
The difference is that in some auctions you are forced to bid and in others you are not. When partner doubles a weak two, for example, passing is not a relevant option, so you need sequences that enable you to show particularly poor hands. Those sequence are the ones that start with the 2NT Lebensohl relay. Bidding a suit directly then shows the next range of hands up – i.e. hands with some positive values, or invitational/competitive hands.
Now consider the situation when partner opens 1NT and RHO overcalls Two Spades. In this situation, you do not have to bid. If you hold a terrible hand, you can simply pass. You do not, therefore, need to allocate sequences to those very bad hands. Thus, the auctions that start with the 2NT relay can then be used to show the weakest hands on which you choose to bid: i.e. hands that just want to compete the partscore and do not want to invite game. With that range of hands dealt with, the direct three-level suit bids are then available for the game-forcing hands.
It does not really matter how the opponents get to the two-level: your bidding problem is the same. Let’s look at these three hands, all with diamonds but with three very different ranges:
Hand G![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand H![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand I![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Now consider how you would bid these in each of the two auctions below:
You — ? |
LHO 2 ![]() |
Partner Dbl |
RHO Pass |
Partner’s takeout double forces you to bid, so you can describe Hand G by starting with the 2NT relay and converting Three Clubs to Three Diamonds.
We have earlier decided that something like Hand H is a direct Three Diamond bid, showing positive values but not enough to force to game.
That leaves Hand I. There is no sequence that allows you to tell partner everything you might wish to show. In practice, you should start with the 2NT Lebensohl relay and then bid 3NT (showing a spade stopper and denying four hearts) over partner’s Three Club response.
You haven’t told partner that you have diamonds, but there simply is not room without going beyond what could easily be the only making game. The most important information to get across here is that you have game-forcing values, a spade stopper and not four hearts.
Now think about how you would bid those same three hands after this slightly different auction:
You — ? |
LHO 1 ![]() |
Partner Dbl |
RHO 2 ![]() |
It makes sense that Lebensohl should also apply in this auction: the problem of differentiating between various hand strengths still applies if you do not.
Now, though, you can bid quite differently. Why? Because you can simply pass when you hold Hand G. You no longer have to bid, so there is no need to allocate sequences to showing very weak hands.
Thus, you would now start with a 2NT relay and convert Three Clubs to Three Diamonds on Hand H. With the constructive hands taken care of by sequences starting with the 2NT relay, direct three-level bids again become game forcing. With Hand I, you can now start with Three Diamonds, which is game-forcing.
What do you make of this auction?
You — Pass 2NT |
LHO 1 ![]() Pass |
Partner Dbl Dbl |
RHO 2 ![]() Pass |
What, do you suppose, 2NT means here?
Before answering, consider these three hands that we have seen before:
Hand G![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand H![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand C![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Let’s start with Hand H. If you are not sure what to bid now, go back to the previous section, where this hand first appeared.
As you will see from our previous discussion, with this sort of hand you would have bid 2NT immediately over RHO’s Two Spades. You cannot, therefore, have a hand with the values to compete because you would then have bid earlier
The only type of hand you can have now is one of the very weak ones. You do not, therefore, need a 2NT relay to differentiate between hands of various strengths – they’re all weak. Much more important now is to use 2NT when you do not know which suit to choose.
With Hand G you want to play in diamonds (remember that partner’s double asked you to pick a suit and he should therefore have at least reasonable support for any one you select).
Hand C is more of a problem: partner is most likely to be 1-4-4-4 or 2-4-4-3 or 2-4-3-4, so there is a fair chance that if you just guess one of the minors you will land in a seven-card fit
To solve this problem, you can use 2NT for just this sort of hand: it is called a “Scramble” and it shows two possible places to play and asks partner to choose a suit.
(Note that he should NOT just choose hearts, as he must cater for you holding both minors. If he bids clubs and you are 4-4 in the red suits, you will then bid Three Diamonds to tell him this.)
In the earlier article, we often referred to partner’s "Forced Three Club" bid. In that auction, where you have opened 1NT, you have a hand in a narrow strength range and within fairly well-defined shape parameters. In those circumstances, you should always bid Three Clubs when partner bids 2NT in a Lebensohl situation.
When you make a takeout double of an opponent’s weak two, though, you could have a wide variety of hands. Thus, you will respond Three Clubs when partner bids the 2NT Lebensohl relay if your hand falls into the broad range that would be expected. Essentially, you bid Three Clubs only when you are happy to play there if partner holds one of those hands that would be passing Three Clubs (either very weak or invitational, depending on the exact auction).
To see why you will not always bid Three Clubs, consider these two hands:
Hand J![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hand K![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Holding Hand J, perhaps you have doubled a Two Spade opening (and thus partner’s 2NT could be very weak). Alternatively, you doubled a One Spade opening which was raised to Two Spades on your left. Now, when partner bids the 2NT Lebensohl, he may have an invitational hand with clubs. Either way, though, you are happy to play in Three Clubs if he passes your response.
Now think about what you would do with Hand K. This time, you decide that you are too strong to overcall Four Hearts when RHO opens Two Spades. After all, you could be cold for anything from Four Hearts to Seven Clubs, so it makes sense to start with a takeout double. When partner responds 2NT, do you really want to play in Three Clubs if he has a weak hand with that suit?
Of course, the most likely hand for partner is a weak hand with diamonds, in which case he will be bidding Three Diamonds over Three Clubs. Even so, are you willing to take the chance of playing in Three Clubs opposite
8 6 5
10 3
9 7 2
Q 9 7 5 2
You should jump to Four Hearts over partner’s 2NT, showing a hand too strong for Four Hearts on the first round . This will not get you to either making slam, but at least you get to Four Hearts, which is probably the best you can expect when the opponents have forced you to start bidding at the three-level.
In due course, this series of articles will include at least three more articles on subjects related to the topic covered here.
Lebensohl was originally attributed to a successful bridge player in the 70's named Ken Lebensold. He denied any responsibility though, possibly foreseeing the thousands of Lebensohl bidding accidents to come. The misattribution has persisted ever since.
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