Vil on 31WED

From Wednesday 3/08/2016
The 1NT opening and continuations should be a very basic part of bridge for those playing at the level which these reviews address. But many of our newer players have trouble with the very basic 1NT opening and its continuations. They also have difficulty in knowing when, how, and what, to bid when an opponent has opened 1NT. These things should be addressed by any pair that wants to improve their bridge at the most basic level.

Board 10 Dealer E ALL Vul

T754
J9
9865
KQJ
QJ86
AT52
J
AT85
A3
KQ74
7432
973
K92
863
AKQT
642

After East passes, South has a perfect weak 1NT opener. Yes, the points are all concentrated in diamonds with only the king of spades outside, but the hand is completely BALANCED and South really does not have a sensible rebid. Some Souths clearly did open 1D, but maybe they were playing some other system. But at this stage let's say South opens 1NT. That should be the end of it, UNLESS West decides to compete. West's hand is ideal for competing against a ONE DIAMOND opener: West can DOUBLE.

But what to do over 1NT? Without any system that will show more than one suit, West has to guess, and guessing is not recommended at bridge. MOST advanced pairs have a system that can show both majors. I don't know how many of our Wednesday pairs can make a bid as West to show both majors, and yes, you should not need more than four cards in each to hope to compete against a 1NT opening.

The simplest system over a 1NT opener is “LANDY”: a bid of 2C (similar to Stayman, but by opponents) shows at least 4-4 in the majors and partner can then decide on the best suit to compete in. Partner can also PASS 2C with nothing but clubs, or bid 2D to show no support in either major, usually no more than THREE cards in either, allowing the Landy bidder to then bid their better major (and hope for the best!). There are other better systems but I will not go into that now, suffice to say that whether you are the side that opens 1NT or the opposition, it helps if you know what to do. I note that there were diamond contracts by South as well as a couple in 1NT and ONE in 2S by North(!!) but not one single EW pair played in 2H, which is easily reached if EW are playing Landy or any other system that can show two suits.

Another badly handled deal was Board 18, with another 1NT opening. Here is the full deal although the NS hands are irrelevant.

Board 18 Dealer E N/S Vul

T9
982
KT9632
A5
A87642
AKJ
854
K
KJ53
T65
AQ
Q986
Q
Q743
J7
JT7432

The bidding should have been short and sweet: 1NT from East, 4S from West. East has a perfectly normal weak 1NT opener and West, with SIX spades, and enough points for game but not enough to look for slam, simply bids 4S. End of story.

But what did we see? Yes, four pairs were in 4S but one was in 2S and one was in 3S and one optimist was in 5NT, which fortunately for them, ended happily albeit undeservedly. Our newer players would do well to concentrate on getting their basic 1NT openings and continuations sorted out.