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It’s Fri Day…for those new to the game.

Run, Rabbit, Run!   

We are going to focus today on a bidding situation which so many of our newer players get wrong. Have a go at today’s question and see how you fare.

 

 

North opens 1NT which shows 12-14 hcp and a balanced hand. What would you bid with the above South hand?

The problem occurs with two pieces of advice which seem to contradict each other but do not. The advice which confuses but does not apply here is that you need at least 6 hcp to respond to your partner’s 1 level opening bid. Very good advice but it only applies when your partner opens the bidding with 1 of a suit.

As the 1NT bid we are taught (in Acol) promises just 12-14 hcp, you will frequently be in trouble if you pass because you have less than 6 hcp. Your partner will often have to play 1NT with few honour cards and as with the hand above as dummy, will make very few tricks.

So, if you have a 5-card or longer suit and any weak hand, weak being 0 up to 10 hcp, you should bid your suit at the 2 level.¹ Note that this advice also applies if you have been taught to open 1NT with a higher point count. Without a 5-card suit, you do have to pass and hope for the best.

¹ Some of you may have learnt the Stayman convention in which case, you cannot bid 2 with a long suit of clubs. Others may have learnt transfers in which case you can only escape 1NT when you have 5+ hearts or spades. There are ways then of escaping with diamonds or clubs too but a little more complexity is involved. If Stayman or Transfers means nothing to you, then you can bid any suit naturally at the 2-level to escape 1NT.

Let’s see what would have happened had 1NT been passed out.

 

East would start with high clubs, taking the first five tricks. North would have to discard one card from each other suit from their hand. Say East then switches to the 9. North will score 2 diamond tricks, A and a heart if they guess to play the king on the first round. That means the result will be 3 down at best, maybe down 4, -300 or -400, a terrible result.

Compare with:

West              North             East                South

                        1NT                Pass                2

All Pass

Whatever West chooses to lead, South should lose one spade, two hearts, one diamond and, if they remember to ruff their 3^rd club in dummy before drawing trumps, just 2 club tricks. That means just 1 down, -100. Alternatively, East may bid 3, a contract they may or may not make. Passing out 1NT is the worst of South's options.

So, no matter how weak you are (and especially when you have less than 6hcp), and where you have a 5+ card suit, run to the comparative safety of that suit at the 2 level. It’s rarely wrong to do so…and will often save you from a terrible result.  

Richard Solomon

 

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