Lebensohl comes into play in certain situations

Partner opened 1 no trump, and they overcalled. Now what do I do? A player at the Tom Cheetham Duplicate Bridge Club in Nashua held this problem hand at a recent game and asked me how it should be bid. Although I find conventions fascinating, I don’t usually write about them because they’re well documented elsewhere. This particular situation, however, comes up frequently enough to justify presenting a widely used convention called “lebensohl.” (There is no universal agreement about the origin of the convention or the odd spelling of its name.) The opening 1NT showed 15-17 high card points, and East’s two club overcall was “DONT,” a convention for bidding over 1NT that has become popular because it’s effective and relatively simple. It includes overcalls of two clubs and two diamonds, each of which shows that suit and an unspecified, higher ranking suit. The name stands for “Disturbing Opponent’s No Trump.” If you and your partner haven’t discussed interference over 1NT, you can assume these simple “standard” methods apply: Double is penalty and indicates that our side has enough combined high card points that we shouldn’t allow the opponents to play in an undoubled contract.