Generally, the higher you have to bid over the opponents' actions, the stronger your hand should be, with emphasis on the quality of the suit. You're cruisin' for a bruisin' if you routinely overcall at the two and three levels with trashy suits. In fact, if your suit is “beefy” — lots of 10s and 9s — you can have a little less in high cards. Remember, the more you have in your suit, the less the opponents have, making it tougher for them to double you.

Let's say the dealer opens the bidding with 3 ♥. What kind of hand should you have to enter the auction? Look at the three hands following and determine whether you want to get in there and bid. If so, what do you bid?

With the first hand, you have 15 HCP. Not bad, but don't even think about bidding that ratty club suit at the four level. The downside (you get doubled and go down so much your minus score looks like a telephone number) is too great. The doubleton ♥ Q is also likely to be worthless after the opening 3 ♥ bid, so now you're looking at what is in reality a 13-point hand. Discretion is the better part of valor in this case. Just pass.

With the second hand, it's a very different story even though there are only 10 HCP. This hand has a lot going for it. One of the best things this hand has in its favor is the opening 3 ♥ bid by your right-hand opponent.

That may seem strange, but consider what the auction is telling you. Your right-hand opponent probably has seven hearts. You have four. There are but two left in the whole deck. At the outside, your partner has two. More likely, she has one or none. If she has but one heart, that leaves her lots of cards in the other suits, including spades. The very real possibility of a nice spade fit between you and partner exists on this hand. Get on in there and bid 3 ♠.

The third hand looks like it qualifies for a bid, don't you think? If you're thinking 4 ♣, you're on the right track because you are taking some action. But there's a better bid here. The 3NT.

Let's look at the hand a bit more closely to see why 3NT has a lot going for it. First, you have seven clubs headed by the AK. If your partner has two or three clubs, maybe even the singleton Q, that club suit is probably going to run. That's seven tricks right there. You are also blessed with two aces, and that's nine tricks.

Okay, the opener's partner might have some great holding in diamonds and run off enough tricks to beat you before you even take a trick. But who's to say your partner doesn't have a little something in diamonds, or maybe your left-hand opponent has a broken diamond suit, in which case you can bet the farm that he's going to do what every other red-blooded West would do in his situation: Lead his partner's suit. Better to lead your partner's suit than to be blamed for a disaster if you don't and leading it was right.

It pays to be optimistic in these situations. Bid with confidence and it's the opponents who have to sort things out and find the so-called “killing lead.”

But what about bidding 4 ♣? Couldn't that be right? You bet, but if you think you have a shot at game in clubs, that would require a fit with partner in your long suit, and if you have that, you're back to your nine tricks in 3NT versus having to take eleven tricks in clubs. Which would you rather go for?