One place that we do not need a jump bid to show a weak hand is in the passout (PO) seat, also known as the balancing seat.  In this seat with a weak hand, say 5-8 HCP, and a long suit, we would not bid; we would simply pass the hand out.  Bidding here with so few HCP may give the opponents a chance to reach a better partscore or game that they may not otherwise reach.  Since we will not bid in the PO seat with a weak hand and we could make a simple overcall with 9-10 HCP and a long suit, then a Jump Overcall in the PO seat is free to be used to describe a different type of hand that can otherwise be difficult to show. 

In competitive auctions where the opponents have found a fit, we will compete aggressively – especially at matchpoints. We will frequently use double (for takeout) with three-suited hands and sometimes with two-suited hands. To handle these situations, we want partner (Advancer) to have a tool to help us find our best fit. As usual, in competitive auctions our choice of convention will be 2NT. This gadget is called Scrambling 2NT.

When we open the bidding with 1NT, showing 15-17 points, if an opponent makes a penalty double, we are less likely to be looking to invite or bid game. We are usually looking to escape from a 1NT contract and attempt to find some safer place to play. This safe place will hopefully be our largest fit or a long suit in the weak hand (in Responder’s hand). In order to find this place to play we need to look at how Responder’s bidding options change after a penalty double.

There are many systems the opponents play in order to interfere over our 1NT opening bid, but almost all of these systems use the 3-level (actually 2NT+) for the same meanings – 2NT as a weak bid showing both minors and 3-level bids as weak with a long suit, preemptive. It is important that you and partner are on the same page for how to deal with this higher-level interference

After partner opens 1NT, we have a good structure for using our bids efficiently to describe our hand to partner. But when the opponents interfere in our auction, we lose some of this valuable bidding space and need to change our approach in order to deal with their interference.