Your Call 23

Unusual No Trumps, partner? And how, and when do you play it? What about Michaels? Same question: how and when do you play that? And a final question: have you heard of ‘leaping Michaels’? The answer is possibly that you have, but what about leaping Unusual No Trumps? When you think about it, why not play the Unusual NT and Michaels to include leaps to a higher level depending on your distribution and strength. Here is a great example of the use of the UNT.

Board 10 from Friday 16/05/2025
Dealer E All Vul

	KQ8763 K KJT764
QT875 9 94 Q9853		AJ96 52 AQT875 A
	K432 AJT4 J632 2

East opens 1D, South passes. Would you bid 1S if you were West? It could be asking for trouble so most Wests would pass. What would you do if you were North, in the ‘pass out’ seat? Bidding a quiet 1H might work out but then again if you think ahead, where are the spades? Bidding 1H is almost certain to elicit either 1S, DOUBLE, or 2D from East, no you don’t need to be clairvoyant to foresee that. I believe that the Unusual No Trump is ideal in this situation, because it is almost certain to make life difficult for East if East had a good hand and wanted to bid spades, or rebid the diamonds. Either 1H or 2C is going to do nothing to the EW auction and may also stifle any constructive bidding from NS. If you have a fit for purpose tool, why not use it?

I note that some players now call the Unusual No Trump a “Michaels” as well. What’s in a name, as long as partner understands what you bid? And I mentioned “Leaping Michaels” earlier. There seems to be absolutely no reason not to play it at any level that fits in with your hand, be it to disrupt opponents or to bid constructively. Why not extend both Michaels and Unusual No Trumps to any level. When was the last time you felt like bidding 3NT when an opponent opened 1D or 1S?

Looking at the results across XClubs presents an interesting picture. The NS pairs who played in game in hearts did well, as did the EW pairs who played in 4S. The old adage: “Who dares wins”. Disappointingly, there was only one declarer in 4S who managed to emulate Deep Finesse and made eleven tricks. Not having the knowledge of the play or players, I can not comment further but the reader may find it of interest to analyse the play for themselves. Incorporating Michaels and Unusual No Trumps in your system, I believe, is a must. If you want to take it further, add in the ‘leaping’ aspect in as well. I can’t guarantee success, but I can guarantee more excitement.