When you add a new bid to your system, seeing its benefits often requires patience. No matter how eager you are to try it out, your system improvement can be a liability if you start using it with the wrong type of hand.
You’ve probably seen players making this mistake with off-shape 1NT openers. Since 2016, it’s been legal to open 1NT with a singleton honor (queen or higher) and an otherwise balanced pattern. Some pairs prefer to have classic distribution and decide they won’t open 1NT with this type of hand. Others bid as if they’ve just been released from Notrump Jail and open 1NT with any hand that barely meets the requirements.
A more successful approach is to learn how to take advantage of this new option, but to be selective enough that you use it rarely. All of the hands below are legal 1NT opening bids. Which would you evaluate as right for a 15-17 1NT?
1 - ♠K ♥KJ65 ♦K10632 ♣AQ4
2 - ♠Q ♥Q854 ♦KQJ ♣AJ753
3 - ♠A ♥AJ106 ♦AQ1085 ♣Q82
4 - ♠KJ74 ♥KJ74 ♦AJ104 ♣Q
5 - ♠KQ9 ♥A ♦KQJ1095 ♣732
One reason to consider 1NT with these hands is that it immediately limits your strength to a 3-point range. That’s a big advantage over a suit opening, which shows a 11-point range (11 up to around 21 points), balanced or unbalanced, and will require two or even three bids to narrow that down.
The deciding factor, though, should always be potential rebid problems. A singleton is already a major flaw for notrump, so you’ll want to open 1NT only when you believe that opening a suit is likely to create an even more misleading auction.
Hand #1 is a good example of this type of problem. If you open 1D, partner’s most common response will be 1S or 1NT, which means you’ll have to overbid or underbid at your second turn. Open 1NT and your only concern is that partner might insist on playing in spades, which won’t necessarily be a disaster. A singleton ♠K isn’t that much different than ♠xx for support.
The argument for 1NT is less compelling with the other four hands, which can all be described fairly accurately by starting with 1C or 1D. With weak suits, no spot cards and the least-valuable singleton (the queen), #2 looks more like 14 points than 15. You won’t feel like you're underbidding if you open 1C and rebid 1NT over partner’s 1S (or pass a 1NT response).
#3 is actually a bit heavy for 1NT. With the strong suits and quick tricks, it looks more like 18 points than 17. Opening 1D and making a reverse rebid of 2H offers a near-perfect picture of these values.
You’ll rarely have rebid problems when you hold four or more spades, so open 1D with #4. Your follow-ups will be easy -- a jump-raise if partner responds 1H or 1S, a pass if he responds 1NT.
Natural bidding can also be better when you have a strong 6-card suit. With #5, open 1D and rebid 3D. Change the minors to ♦KJ9532 and ♣Q107 and a 1NT opener would be more attractive.
When considering a 1NT opening with a singleton honor, it may be helpful to ask yourself how much it deviates from a hand that would be perfect for this bid. Here are the features of that ideal hand:
Strength: 16 points. Some 15- and 17-point hands will be weak enough or strong enough to bid naturally.
Distribution: Most common will be 5-4-3-1 where the 5-card suit is a minor and the 4-card suit is not spades. 4-4-4-1 and 6-3-3-1 patterns are also legal but less likely to have rebid problems.
Stiff honor: A singleton honor functions as protection or a "half" stopper. Stiff king is best because it’s valuable if partner has the jack, queen or ace (and may even win a trick when partner has no honor). Stiff queen is less helpful and not really worth two high-card points. Stiff ace may actually be wasted power because it’s a sure trick that would be more of an asset in a long suit.
© 2021 Karen Walker