As bridge players who like to win, we admire the "take no prisoners" attitude shown in the 1959 Bobby Darin hit "Mack the Knife." While we don't want quite the level of mayhem Mack produced, we still want to cause some damage. That's why we love overcalls.

An overcall promises 7-ish to 17-ish points and a Darn Good five-card suit. The worse the point count the better the suit needs to be.

The problem comes of course if you are the Pard of the overcaller, and that's who we are today. Our questions today are all based on having a fit with the overcaller. We don't know our Pard's point count, and that's where the problem lies.

Here are our choices:
1. Pass. Yeah, sure. Like Mack would pass.
2. Simple raise. If we have a minimum hand with a fit, this is our best choice. The level of our raise will show how many trumps we have. Remember: raising your Pard's suit in a competitive auction ALWAYS shows weakness. Not forcing.
3. Cuebid. Bid the opponent's suit. This shows 10-plus points, and a fit. It is ever-so-forcing.
4. A new suit. Most people play this as forcing for one round, so you better be serious.
5. 1 No-trump promises 8-9 pts with stopper(s) in Their suit. Since Pard could be light, we want our No-trump response to be a little stronger.

Let's practice.