Comfy Canapé

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In the card game bridge, CoCa or Comfy Canapé is a conventional defense against opposing 1NT openings. When playing CoCa, over a 1NT opening of the opponents, both a double as well as a 2♣ overcall are conventional and establish spades and hearts, respectively as anchor suits. Higher overcalls (2♦/♥/♠) can be either natural (single suiters), or conventional (as explained below).

Contract bridge card game

Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing bridge at the regional level.

Calls made during the auction phase of a contract bridge game convey information about the player's card holdings. Calls may be "natural" or "artificial". A bridge convention is an agreement about an artificial call or a set of related artificial calls.

In contract bridge, an overcall is a bid made after an opening bid has been made by an opponent; the term refers only to the first such bid. A direct overcall is such a bid made by the player seated immediately to the left of the opener, i.e. next in the bidding rotation; an overcall in the 'last seat', i.e. by the player to the right of opener, which is made after two intervening passes, is referred to as a balancing overcall.

Contents

The convention was published in Bridge Magazine IMP. [1]

CoCa overcalls

dbl = A) 4-card spades plus a longer suit, or B) 6-card spades

2♣ = A) 4-card hearts plus a longer suit, or B) 6-card hearts

2♦ = 4-4 majors

2♥ = 5-card plus minor suit

2♠ = 5-card plus minor suit

The canapé structure of the dbl/2♣ CoCa bids (with a rebid in another suit denoting a longer suit) is what lends the convention its name.

Responses

Following the CoCa double, the partner of the doubler responds as follows:

(1NT) - dbl - (pass) - ??

pass = hand suitable for defense (usually denies spades)
2♣ = pass-or-correct bid, denies 4-card spades (doubler to pass or bid longer suit)
2♦ = pass-or-correct bid, denies 4-card spades, hand suitable for conversion to 3♣ (doubler to pass or bid longer suit)
2♥ = pass-or-correct bid, denies 4-card spades, hand suitable for conversion to 3♣/♦ (doubler to pass or bid longer suit)
2♠ = spade fit

Similar responses apply to a 2♣ overcall:

(1NT) - 2♣ - (pass) - ??

Pass = to play
2♦ = pass-or-correct bid, denies 4-card hearts (doubler to pass or bid longer suit)
2♥ = heart fit
2♠ = to play

Advantages/disadvantages

CoCa renders all unbalanced hands with a major suit biddable. Claimed advantage of CoCa over other conventional defenses to 1NT openings, is that the first CoCa bid establishes at least one major anchor suit. Obviously, this advantage can turn into a disadvantage in cases knowledge of this anchor suit helps the opponents with a key decision during play.

Furthermore, for nine out of the twelve frequently occurring 5-4 two suiters, the structure of the CoCa-overcalls allows the partnership to sign-off in the longer suit at the two level. Moreover, for five of these 5-4 hands, also the 4-card is known to partner before the bidding goes beyond that suit at the two-level. As a result, the treatment minimises the chance of ending up in a Moysian (4-3) fit whilst a better (5-3) fit is available.

Two suiter

In contract bridge, a two suiter is a hand containing cards mostly from two of the four suits. Traditionally a hand is considered a two suiter if it contains at least ten cards in two suits, with the two suits not differing in length by more than one card. Depending on suit quality and partnership agreement different classification schemes are viable. The more modern trend is to lower the threshold of ten cards to nine cards and consider 5-4 distributions also two suiters.

Like using Brozel, Lionel and DONT, using CoCa carries the consequence of losing the penalty double over opponent's 1NT. Although this is sometimes seen as a loss, the inventor of the Lionel convention, Lionel Wright, argues that this loss turns into an advantage as it opens the possibility to defend 1NT doubled with split points between both defending partners. As a balanced holding of the majority of points is far more likely to occur than holding the majority of points in an imbalanced way, a conventional non-penalty double over 1NT holds the potential of paying-off on many hands. Also, non-penalty doubles are more difficult to deal with than traditional business doubles. [2]

Brozel is a contract bridge bidding convention used to intervene after an opposing one notrump (1NT) opening bid. It features the following calls:

In the card game contract bridge, DONT is a conventional overcall used to interfere with an opponent's one notrump (1NT) opening bid. DONT, an acronym for Disturb Opponents' Notrump, was designed by Marty Bergen, and is therefore also referred to as "Bergen over Notrump". Although the method is often criticized for being too nebulous, it remains fairly popular. The convention was first published in the September/October 1989 issue of Bridge Today.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Johannes Koelman, Bridge Magazine IMP, September 2006. (in Dutch)
  2. ↑ Chris Ryall's page on 1NT defenses
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