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--- notrump [2017/12/23 15:30]
ldrews created
+++ notrump [2018/07/01 19:53] (current)
ldrews
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-The 1 NT Opening bid
+**The 1 NT Opening bid**
 Even though this Bidding System is advertised as a Strong Club system, with the starring role given to the 1C opening bid, arguably the most important opening bid is 1NT.  Probably 35%-40% of the biddable hands will be opened with 1NT.
@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 And the response structure to the opening 1NT bid occurs in several different contexts, so it is appropriate to discuss the response structure in some detail before visiting the other bids.
-NT – 11-15 HCP, balanced, no 5 card major
+**1NT – 11-15 HCP, balanced, no 5 card major**
 A balanced hand in this Bidding System is any hand that does not contain a void, singleton, or more that one doubleton.
@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 There is an exception to the above.  If your partner has 10+ HCP then you would like to play the 1NT doubled.  But to make it even more exciting, your partner should Redouble.  This converts the 1NTx contract into a game level 1NTxx.  If you make it you score a game.  This puts tremendous pressure on the opponents.  They face losing big if you make the contract.  So they will seldom leave the 1NTxx in place but rather they will bid at the 2 level.  At this point you can ignore the double and treat the new bid as a direct overcall (which will be discussed in a later section).
-NT Escape Bids
+**1 NT Escape Bids**
 However, if your partner has <10 HCP, it is time for evasive action!  The evasive action is defined by partnership agreement and generally has to be alerted, and explained upon request, to the opponents.
@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 The simplest escape bid is for partner to bid their longest and strongest suit.  Opener is expected to pass.  The problem is that you may end up with just 6 trumps between you.  Partner’s longest suit is a 4 card Diamond suit, and you happen to have a doubleton in Diamonds.  Life is not good in this case.
-A more sophisticated, and more complex, agreement that we can use is the Meckwell Escapes, named after the well know national partnership called Meckwell.  That agreement is as follows:
-Opener:  1NT   LHO:  Double  :Responder (partner): ??
+OK, now that the risky part has been handled, let’s talk about normal constructive bidding in response to an opening 1NT.
-Escape bids:
+**Constructive responses to opening 1NT**
-Pass		Responder has a 5 card minor or 2 4 card majors, request opener bid 2C
-C		Responder has 4C and a higher 4 card suit
-D		Responder has 4D and a higher 4 card suit
-H		Responder has 5H
-S		Responder has 5S
-If Responder passed, and there is no intervening bid by opponents, opener bids 2C.  If that is the minor suit held by Responder, Responder will pass.  If Responder holds a 5 card Diamond sit, the Responder will bid 2D.  If Responder has 2 4 card majors, Responder will bid 2H and opener can pass or correct to 2S.
+**< 10 HCP**
-If Responder bids 2C or 2D, if opener is happy with it opener passes.  Otherwise opener bids the next higher suit and Responder either passes or corrects to the actual other suit.
+With a 5+ card major, Responder uses a Jacoby Transfer to force opener to bid the major suit after which the Responder passes.  This is essentially an escape.
-If Responder bids 2H or 2S, opener passes.
+For those not familiar with Jacoby Transfers, Responder bids 2D to force Opener to rebid 2H, and bids 2H to force Opener to rebid 2S.
-This agreement is guaranteed to find a 7 card trump fit at the 2 level, and often an 8 card fit.  Of course if the opponents intervene with a bid, then the opener and Responder shut up!  The partnership is now out of trouble and has escaped!
-Occasionally it will be the RHO of the opener who will double after opener’s partner has passed.  In this case opener passes, and if LHO passes, Responder executes the same agreement except that a pass is replaced by a redouble.  In this case the redouble cannot mean partner has 10+ HCP because it that were so partner would have bid the first time rather than pass.
+With a 7+ card minor, Responder should consider bidding 3 of the minor suit.  Do this only if Responder has 7-9 HCP, because opener may rebid forcing Responder to rebid at the 4 level.
-OK, now that the risky part has been handled, let’s talk about normal constructive bidding in response to an opening 1NT.
+Otherwise, pass.  If opponents let you have the 1NT contract, undoubled, you won’t get into too much trouble.  Remember, they have the balance of HCP and have not bid them.  They will usually suffer a bad score as a result.
+**10+ HCP**
+This is where life gets interesting.  We may have a game somewhere, we just need to find it.  Or determine that we do not have a game and find the appropriate part score contract.  To do that, the Responder needs to refine the estimate of the number of HCP and distribution of the of the opener’s hand.  The Responder does that with a combination of conventions and invitational bids.  The conventions used are: Australian Stayman, Jacoby Transfers, and Minor Suit Stayman.
+First we need to talk about opener’s hand.  The 1NT bid promises 11-15 HCP and a balanced hand.  For purposes of refinement we divide the 11-15 HCP range into two subranges: 11-13(weak) and 13(strong)-15, known as the min and max subranges.  You will notice that 13 appears in both subranges.  If Responder has 13 HCP, Responder chooses which subrange to use depending on other supporting cards.  Tens and nines are good.  For purposes of calculating partnership total HCP, the min subrange is assumed to have 12 HCP and the max subrange to have 14 HCP.
+^ Responder has: ^ Responder bids: ^ Description ^
+| 10-12 HCP, no 4 card major| 2NT | Invitational, opener bids 3NT with max subranges |
+| 13-16 HCP, no 4 card major | 3NT | To play |
+| 16+ HCP, no 4 card major | 4NT | Quantitative invite to 6N, opener passes with min |
+| 10+ HCP, 4 card major | 2C |Stayman |
+| 10+ HCP, 5 card major | 2D/2H | Jacoby Transfers |
+| 10+ HCP, 5/4+ in minors | 2S | Minor suit stayman, asks opener for 4 card minor |
+| 10-12 HCP, 6 card major | 3H/3S | Invitational |
+| 13+ HCP, 6 card major| 4H/4S | To play |
+| Slam hand | 4C | Gerber ace asking |
+**Looking for a major fit**
+When partner opens the bidding with 1NT and you have 10+ HCP and a 4+ card major suit, the first thing to do is check if the partnership has a major suit fit.  What you do depends on how long your major suit is.
+With 6+ cards in a major suit, and 13+ HCP, bid 4 of the major.  You know opener has at least 2 cards in your suit, giving you 8+ trumps, the definition of a fit.  And since you  have a combined HCP of 25+ ( your 13+ and partners assumed 12), game is almost assured.  Look at it this way, 25 HCP -2 = 23, divide by 3 gives 7.66 HCP tricks.  Assuming it takes 3 rounds to draw trump, the opener's 6 trumps gives 3 additional tricks, for a total of 10.66.
+With 6+ cards and 10-12 HCP, bid 3 of the major, inviting opener to bid 4 if they have 3+ support and more than 12 HCP.  If opener bids 3NT then opener has only 2 card support but more than 12 HCP.  You can decide to leave it at 3NT or force it to 4 of your major.
+With 5 cards in your major, use a Jacoby Transfer to force opener to bid your major.  After opener bids your major, if you have 10-12 HCP and no other 4 card suit, bid 2NT.  If you have another 4 card suit, bid the next level of that suit.  This allows partner to choose at the 3 level.  If you have 13+ HCP, bid 3NT or a jump in your other suit.  Again this allows opener to choose the final contract.
+With 4 cards in one or both majors, use Stayman to ask opener if opener has a 4 card major. If Opener rebids 2D or a major that you do not have 4 of, bid 2NT to invite to game, or bid 3NT if you have 12+ HCP.  If Opener rebids a major that you have 4 of, raise to 3 to invite to game, or bid game if you have 12+ points (HCP+DP).
+**No majors, unsuitable for NT**
+OK, Responder has no 4+ card major, and has a hand that, on the surface, does not look suitable for NT.  This usually means that Responder has 9+ cards in the minors.  If Responder has an unbalanced hand with 6+ cards in one minor, and 10-12 HCP then Responder bids 3 of the minor.  Opener must proceed carefully here and usually pass unless opener has a 14-15 HCP hand.  If Responder has 13+ HCP then Responder may bid 4 of the minor, inviting opener to bid game in the minor.  Since opener has a balanced hand, opener should probably reject any thoughts of slam in this situation.
+If Responder has 5/4+ in the minors, Responder uses the Minor Suit Stayman convention.  Using this convention, Responder bids 2S, asking opener to bid a 4+ card minor if opener has one.  Opener rebids a minor or 2N to indicate no minor. Based on opener’s response, Responder can pass or raise the bid.
+**Minor Suit Stayman**
+^Opener	^Responder	^Opener Rebid (must alert)^Description^
+|1NT|2S| |Minor Suit Stayman|
+| | |2N|Do not have 4+ card minor|
+| | |3m|4+ cards in minor|
+**Gerber Ace Asking Convention**
+Occasionally Responder will have a very strong hand, 16+ HCP, and will want to investigate slam.  Gerber is the standard ace asking convention used over natural NT bids.  Note that the opener never invokes Gerber since the opener’s hand is limited to 11-15 HCP.  Responder is the only one who knows if slam is possible.
+^Opener	^Responder	^Opener Rebid ^Description^
+|1NT|4C| |How many aces do you have?|
+| | |4D	|All or none|
+| | |4H	|1|
+| | |4S	|2|
+| | |4NT|3|
+Kings are asked for the same way with a follow-up 5C bid by Responder.
+Opponents’ Interference
+It seems to be a fact of life that bridge opponents do not always cooperate with our attempts to secure a good bridge contract.  If possible, they will interfere with the bidding.  We have already dealt with the problem of doubles, so let us now address overcalls.
+^Opener	^LHO ^Responder^
+|1NT|2x|?? |
+Many overcall bids of 1NT are conventional.  And there are many such conventions, too many to keep track of.  So for purposes of simplicity, we ignore the possible meanings of the overcall as far as our immediate responses are concerned.
+^Opener^LHO^Responder^Description^
+|1NT|2x| | |
+| | |Double(Must alert)|Stolen bid (that was what I wanted to bid!)|
+| | |Other bid|Our normal meaning|
+We will occasionally lose the ability to make our normal bids.  But don’t get too creative, it messes up our mutual understandings about what our bids mean.  It is probably worth while to get shut out rather than introduce ambiguity in our bidding system.
+OK, that is it for 1NT.

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