Did you think that everyone knows (or agrees) what a 1NT opening bid promises? No way! By now you realize that not everyone looks at life as you do. They don’t look at their cards as you do, either. Here are a few things you might want to discuss with your favorite partners. You don’t have to agree with me … but you and your partners need to see eyeball to eyeball.
Shape Adjustments: First, do you make adjustments for shape? Some do and some don’t. Many today add one point for a “good” five-card suit.
(“Good” is defined differently by different partnerships. “Good” may mean three honors …sometimes called a “cluster” of honors in a five-card suit. Others may decide six HCP in a five-card suit is “good.” Less-concerned partnerships may use five HCP or even less as the definition of a “good” five-card suit.)
Does your partnership adjust UP for a good five-card suit? You decide.
Some partnerships downgrade for 4333 shape. Goren, Stayman, Blackwood, Jacoby, Gerber and many other old-timers recommended that you deduct one point for 4333 shape. Will you be doing this? Does your partner?
HCP Adjustments: Better players are more and more adjusting their HCP in balanced hands. Everyone knows aces and tens are undervalued and queens and jacks are overvalued – kings are about right. A quick and simple adjustment is just to count aces and tens as one plus each and to count quacks as one minus each. If you have three more pluses, then add a point. If you have three more minuses, then deduct a point. Essentially, you are counting thirds of a point. Psst … don’t tell anyone it’s fractions … they will freak out.
Quick Tricks: Personally, I suggest you agree that (if 15-17 is your range) your one notrump should always (or nearly always) promise three Quick Tricks (3QT). Once in a while a 16 HCP hand will only have 2½QT and that is well within your range. All 15 HCP hands promise 3QT. You may not like his guideline and prefer your own. Discuss it.
Worthless Doubletons: Once upon a time many players felt that a doubleton should contain a “high honor” (A, K, or Q). Almost no one demands this today … but a few do. Will your partnership? If you do demand this, how do you handle hands with all the other qualifications but missing this one?
Five-Card Majors Inside Your One Notrump Bid: Once upon a time many players would not open 1NT holding 5332 shape including a five-card major. I know a former world champion who insists on this. The vast majority of players today do not follow this guideline. One (of several) problems it causes has to do with rebids. If you open a 5332 16HCP hand with a major suit and partner bids 1NT, what do you do? You are not strong enough to raise the 1NT bid to 2NT and too strong to make a minimum rebid.
Speaking of old-fashioned ideas: Eighty years ago Culbertson dictated that 1NT openings must be only 4333 shape and the four-card suit must not be as good as QJxx. His team played in a world championship and no member ever opened 1NT during the entire event. They lost.
Did you think that everyone knows (or agrees) what a 1NT opening bid promises? No way!
Rod Bias, I/N Coordinator, D17