Lebensohl

Introduction to Lebensohl

Always make sure to think about WHEN it applies. This is very important. It is not something we use in any/every auction — it only applies in 1 or 2 specific situations, subject to partnership agreement.

There are two times it applies.

Firstly — after your side has bid 1NT, and the opponents interfere.

For example:

Here it would be nice to be able to compete to your 7-card suit, especially since you have a singleton in the opponents' suit. Defending 2♥ here doesn't seem like a very good idea. However, is a bid of 3♦ by you forcing? How will partner know that you have 3 points and not 10 points?

The way Lebensohl works in the above situation is, a direct bid of 3♦ is forcing. Whereas, if you want to compete to the 3 level with a bad hand, you start with the bid of 2NT. 2NT is completely artificial — it just says to partner "I have a weak hand, I'm just competing". Now partner knows not to just let you play in your long suit.

What does partner do over the 2NT bid? Partner is forced to bid 3♣, without even looking at their hand. This allows you to pass 3♣ if that is your suit, or otherwise bid your own suit. So with the hand above, the auction would continue:

So, you have managed to eventually bid 3♦, but you started with the bid of 2NT which simply said "I have a weak hand where I just want to compete".

Secondly — after the opponents have opened a weak 2, and partner makes a takeout double.

This seems like a rather specific situation, but because it comes up quite frequently, Lebensohl is used to solve a very specific problem. Let me put you in the shoes of the takeout doubler.

You have made a takeout double and partner has bid 3♦. Do you bid on? What if partner has 0 points — is it a good idea to? Probably not. What if they have, say, 8-11 points? Then surely it is a good idea?

Hopefully you can see the problem. This is the way Lebensohl works.

In that context (the opponents open a weak 2 and partner doubles), a bid of 2NT says "I have a very weak hand (0-7 points)". Once again, partner must always bid 3♣, so you can either play in clubs or correct to your longer suit.

Therefore, if responder to the double doesn't bid 2NT, and instead bids 3♦ directly as in the above example, it shows 8-11 points. Now partner doesn't need to worry, like we did in the example above, "what if he has very few points".

Lastly, if you have a game-forcing hand — often just bid game. So for example:

Here we just bid 4♥, simple. However, sometimes we have more ambiguous hands — for example only a 4-card major (and partner only promises 3 hearts for the double typically). In such cases we can start by cue-bidding the opponents' suit. For example:

Here partner will typically bid 3NT with a stopper, or otherwise often get the message that you have 4 hearts but not 5.

(Note: in future articles I will look at a slightly more sophisticated way to play Lebensohl where you can show this exact hand — 4 hearts with or without a stopper.)

Compare and contrast the situations where Lebensohl applies

There are some key differences and similarities that are worth thinking about in order to better understand how it works.

1. 2NT is always the "I have a weak hand" bid. That is helpful for your memory!
2. In the situation where a player opens (or overcalls) 1NT, the range of the hand is tightly defined — 15-17, say. So the idea is that responder knows whether they want to just compete (say 2-8 points) or want to bid game (say 9+ points).

Contrast that to the situation where partner doubles the opponents' weak 2 — their range is, say, 12-25 points. That is why we need to be able to show intermediate hands (8-11) or bad hands. We don't have the luxury of looking at our hand and knowing whether our combined value is good enough just to compete or to bid game — partner's strength is unknown.

Overall, it's important to have the tools to be able to compete efficiently without going overboard. The Lebensohl 2NT bid — telling partner to STOP, I've got a weak hand — is extremely helpful when it comes to stopping in partscore when appropriate.