[Winstonm]

Quote

Overally, I feel that 14-16 1NT is probably easier to handle than 15-17 1NTs.

I like what Rodwell said on this matter. He, too, finds the 14-16 NT most advantageous but only due to the fact that he can increase his balanced hand 1C openings to 17.

WinstonM

[fifee]

♠A1074
♥1082
♦AJ
♣AKJ6

♠KQ63
♥5
♦10732
♣9754


I hate to sound like an old fashioned girl but if you try to change your style to fit these obscure cases, then you will fall on your face more times than you succeed.

Opener has a 17HCP and a 7 loser hand. Since when does that qualify as better than a 1NT opener? Balanced hands need more points to make them look good to me than unbalanced hands.

Added value to NT openers for me are:
*mediocre 5 card suit, add 1/2 point
*decent 5 card suit, add 1 point
*well placed honor cards (protected/and or combined with other honor cards) add 1/2 point
*good middlin cards - lots of 9s and 10s and not too many 2s and 3s - add 1/2 point

Can even subtract a 1/2 point here and there for strongly negative features.

Back to this hand: For every game you make with this opening hand across from a 5 HCP partner, there will be 10 or more you go set in.

[awm]

There are a lot of possible wins and losses for opening 1NT. I'd venture to say that in a constructive auction, opening 1NT tends to be a loser. But nonetheless a lot of top players are leaning towards opening 1NT as often as possible. The wins/losses for 1NT opening would seem to include:

Win: Avoids problem rebids later in the auction. This is more of a systemic thing, but typically if you don't open 1NT with the appropriate hand, you will have trouble finding a call later in the auction.

Win: Immediately limits strength and shape. This places partner exceptionally well in a competitive auction, since he knows when to compete, when to double, and when to bid game.

Win: You usually get to declare the hand. This is obviously huge for a pro playing with a client, but even in a more equal partnership it is sometimes clear that hands will play better from your side (lots of tenaces).

Win: You preempt the opponents. Especially given the methods most people play over strong notrumps, it is often hard for them to bid to a game when we open strong 1NT. Finding the best partscore is also difficult when your bidding starts at the two-level, especially if you use double for penalty (i.e. over weak notrump).

Loss: You can miss light games in suit contracts. The two hands given are examples of this, and in general its fairly easy to construct hands where you have a great fit and partner just passes 1NT. Frequency-wise, this tends to be a worse problem with weak notrumps than strong, but it happens pretty much regardless of range.

Loss: You sometimes play the wrong partial. This is particularly likely when the right partial is a minor suit fit (with responder holding less than six of the minor of course).

Loss: Stopper-finding auctions are sometimes difficult. You can end up in 3NT with two small opposite two small, which is somewhat less likely after a natural suit auction. Of course, you might get lucky and opponents don't find the lead (1NT-3NT is very uninformative bidding) but they do seem to lead these suits more often than not.

Loss: You can be doubled for penalties, and 1NT may already be too high. Of course, this is a lot more of an issue with weak notrumps than with strong.

Honestly I think the reason more top players are opening 1NT is the second "win" up there -- people are competing more aggressively and its nice to get a pretty accurate depiction of your hand down early in these auctions.