WasWinM, on 2025-July-29, 12:12, said:
I think there is a decent case to be made for intermediate jump overcalls. As so much destructive bidding seems to be used today I’m surprised Fishbein hasn’t been resurrected as a defense.
As with just about everything in bridge bidding, any choice you make has pluses and minuses. Intermediate jumps suffer from several issues:
1. They happen infrequently. You need a 6 card suit and around opening values. The OP hand, for example, is far too strong for an intermediate jump overcall
2. They make it extremely difficult to find another suit. Now, that’s not a big problem since the overcall is typically single suited but every now and then you belong in partner’s suit and likely can’t find it. And when you do find it, level can be hard to determine because the overcall consumed a full level of bidding
3. Even when, as is most common, you belong in your suit or notrump the taking away of bidding space sometimes impairs your ability to accurately judge level or strain.
4. The big one: you lose the preemptive jump overcall. Red v white, I’d say this isn’t a big deal one way or the other, but at equal and even more so at favourable, losing the preempt can be extremely costly. Most good pairs bid very accurately against passing opps but few maintain that level of accuracy once the opps start preempting…even when they ‘could’ collect a number. Imo, this is a dealbreaker on direct intermediate jump overcalls. I think they’re a bad idea at mps but even worse at imps.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari