- PRINCIPLE 4: There is no difference in the requirements for opening bids and overcalls. They share the same point-count range and the same suit-length requirements.
- PRINCIPLE 5: 1NT, whether bid as an opening, overcall or response, does not claim a stopper in any suit bid by the opponents.
- PRINCIPLE 11: If a bidder cannot make the first-round bid his hand merits (because the opposition have already taken the auction too high), the bidder simply doubles, with an implied message to partner: "RHO has just taken my opening bid away, and I believe it is safe for you to bid at this or one level higher."
- PRINCIPLE 13: Ignore first-round doubles by the opponents. Carry on and make the bid you would have made if the opponents had passed.
- PRINCIPLE 24: Apart from the use of double, Simplex never keys its bids off the opponents' bidding. (There is, for example, no concept of a jump overcall relative to an opponent's bid. A bid of the 'enemy suit' is always natural, showing at least three cards in that suit.) The philosophy of Simplex is that each hand is worth a particular bid, or sequence of bids, and if one of those bids cannot be made because of opposition bidding, the appropriate bid is usually to double.
- PRINCIPLE 26: After the second round, your doubles are for penalties — do not double purely because RHO has just taken your bid away.
- PRINCIPLE 30: Do not double their strong (i.e. 16+ HCP), natural bids.
- PRINCIPLE 31: The responses to a double of One of a Suit are the same as the responses to an opening bid of One of a Suit, except that 1NT shows 0-9 HCP.
- PRINCIPLE 33: A double on the second round is often for takeout, particularly if bid by someone who also doubled on the first round, in which case partner is asked to bid his best of the unbid suits. A double of a conventional bid is likely to show that doubler has that suit.
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