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Who’s Afraid of the Strong No Trump….?

 Well, are you? Some players are hesitant to overcall while others pretend that it does not exist. Certainly, when you have something worth saying, you should not be put off bidding. What about this hand? How would you handle it?

 

East opens 1NT, 15-17. You have more cards in your two longest suits than high-card points. It is Pairs. What to do as South?

There are many defensive systems from which to choose when an opponent starts with 1NT. We start off with one Panellist who is straight to the point…and the point is a major suit game:

Pam Livingston “4: It’s practical.  I don't have any methods to describe this hand to partner.”

Others start lower:

Michael Cornell “2: which is simply a good overcall. I have nothing else in my system, X=penalties, 2NT =minors.

There are 25 pointed cards outside my hand. I think I would be very unlucky not to get another bid. Even in the unlikely event this happens, I must have a fair chance of going plus which should be some match-points.

Obviously, I will bid clubs if I get the chance including a jump to 4 if the bidding comes back to me at 2: otherwise 5.”

 

Yet, there is another way:

Andy Braithwaite “2NT: which should be any 2 suited hand strong. Then over the response, probably 3, bid 3 to show that suit. If partner does not bid 4, then complete the picture with 4. This bid is highly invitational but partner with xxxxx, x, xxxxx,xx is allowed to pass!”

Kris Wooles “2NT: strong 2- suiter while acknowledging the suits themselves have some holes. If partner bids one of my suits directly, I would bid game, if 3 I would bid 3, if 3 I would bid 4. Certainly the alternative of bidding 2/3/4 directly misrepresents the hand significantly. With as little as Kxx opposite in one of my suits, we could make slam.” (or Jxx and an ace?)

Bruce Anderson “2NT: shows a highly distributional two suited hand- 6/5 or better. Partner bids 3 with a weak(ish) hand; the overcalling hand then starts bidding naturally until the best fit is found. With a better hand, partner bids naturally but should not pre-empt the bidding as there could well be a singleton or void opposite their suit.

On the hand given, if West was to bid spades, North will know that partner has at least one of the minor suits and so could compete holding both minors.

 

This use of an unusual 2NT bid over a 1NT opening is a useful convention for showing very distributional hands. I suggested its use to one of my regular partners after playing a part score with a slam cold in a pairs event a few years ago.”

In theory, your partner will treat your bid as showing the minors but when you change the suit, especially to a major, it becomes obvious this is not the case. You use 2NT when you do just do not want your partner to pass a suit bid because you are too strong.

However, our next Panellist is happy with 2:

Peter Newell “2: +minor. Clearly I have way more shape than the normal 4/5 or 5/5 shape, and a fair bit of high card strength as well.  What I like about 2 is it gets a fair bit of info about the suits at a low level.  Sometimes with a huge overcall, one can be worried about passing, but given I have a 6/6, West and/or North must have a lot of black cards and there will be further bidding. 

If West is going to pass, I expect partner will bid 2, possibly 3.  Over 2, I would like to bid hearts again as that is the most likely game and to emphasise that I have good and long hearts (by inference I must have minor length otherwise I would have just treated the hand as a 1 suiter). Bidding 3 must show a fair hand too, though yes clearly an underbid.  Although I have a great hand, it will not play well unless partner fits and has a useful card in my suits rather than spades or diamonds.  Bidding 2NT over 1NT I play as any big game forcing 2-suiter, but at Pairs I would rather develop the hand more slowly and not fully commit to game.”

Offering another alternative:

Stephen Blackstock “2: hearts and another. I follow with 3. 2 is clearly too little and I think 4 is too much though understandable because partner will not be able to judge which cards are working.”

I can relate to a bid where partner has to bid…and if he had a fistful of clubs and elected to pass 2, then the opposition would surely have a suit to bid and “rescue us”! However, back to the simple overcall for:

Nigel Kearney “2: Of course, 2 will seldom have this much playing strength but double will achieve nothing useful and just make it harder to get my hand across.  The 2 bid is unlikely to end the auction and I will bid 4 next time, or maybe 5 if necessary. 

The best defence against 1NT would be a topic for another article. “Hamilton” (2 any single-suiter, 2 both majors) is very popular in NZ but it's really not very good and few experts use it. I prefer a variation of Astro (2=heart plus other, 2=spades plus other) but would need at least three paragraphs to explain why.”

Well, 2 might have been fine at the table had it shown hearts and a minor. North might have tried 3 (Pass or Correct) and South would have “corrected” to 5. Otherwise, 2 may well have ended the bidding. These were the 4 hands:

 

Slam available in clubs, though a little fortuitously. However, with the strong no-trump hand in the finesse position, there are likely to be a lot of tricks as long as there is an entry to the North hand.

 

no need to be afraid!

 

On the night, bidding to either suit game (3NT makes as well but no South would contemplate that contract) was worth most of the match-points, Pam Livingston reaching a good Pairs game in just one bid. It is true that without that entry to North, the two hands would play a trick or two less well.

Certainly, no time to be wary of that strong no-trump!

 

    Any thoughts?

 

You might have been asleep during the auction…hopefully not, as you will be taking part in the defence!

So, 1NT was 15-17 and 2 artificial and game-forcing. 2showed 3-card support and 3 set trumps, looking for slam. A club cue-bid and North was using key-card. South showed 2 without Q.

Any thoughts?

Richard Solomon

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