Raising a Weak No Trump
This post came about because of a 'post-mortem' on a hand where I opened 1 no-trump with my usual miserable 12 points. My partner immediately bid 3 no-trumps and produced another 12 points!
I actually made 10 tricks and was, therefore, in quite a good mood when I gently observed that 24 points is not usually enough to guarantee a game! She replied that she had been taught at her mother's knee to raise to game with 12 points and invite game with 11.
This seemed so basic that I thought I'd better check to see what the books say!
As usual the first port of call was Ron Klinger. I looked in 'Guide to ACOL Bridge' and couldn't find the answer!
Several other basic texts seemed to fail to provide the answer.
Never one to leave a stone unturned, I e-mailed Ron Klinger himself for an answer!
Here is his reply!
Hi, Joe,
'Basic Bridge: The Guide to Good Acol Bidding and Play' says at page 33:
Responding to 1NT with a balanced hand:
11-12 points: 2NT (Invitational Bid) Game possible
While 3NT was successful with 12 opposite 12, this will not normally be the case unless one of the hands contains a five-card suit. Of course, sometimes the defence will be helpful, sometimes the cards lie very favourably, but in general you need 25 points for 3NT to be about a 50% chance.
The reason there is no answer in Guide To Better Acol is that 1NT : 2NT is basic and the Guide assumes the basics are known.
Regards,
Ron
I have since read some more Klinger on this subject in 'Understanding Duplicate Pairs' with Andrew Kambites. In this he makes the point in much more detail that the decision to raise with 11 points depends on many factors. He quotes a hand like the one below opposite 1NT.
♠A432
♥Q76
♦K73
♣ Q54
Obviously this is a poor hand and is unlikely to make 3NT with most 1NT openers. This hand should be passed unless you are playing teams when game should be invited because the potential gain is worth the risk.
The reasons that this is a bad hand are interesting. There are no intermediates (10s) etc that are useful but the worst feature is the number of isolated honours in each suit. This makes the hand much more difficult to play than even
♠AK32
♥Q76
♦743
♣ Q54
which is not to say that you would invite game with this one either!
Finally, there are 11 point hands which are worth a direct raise to 3NT.
e.g.
♠A10
♥1098
♦AQJ98
♣ 987
This is quite a complicated topic arising from a seemingly simple question!
I actually made 10 tricks and was, therefore, in quite a good mood when I gently observed that 24 points is not usually enough to guarantee a game! She replied that she had been taught at her mother's knee to raise to game with 12 points and invite game with 11.
This seemed so basic that I thought I'd better check to see what the books say!
As usual the first port of call was Ron Klinger. I looked in 'Guide to ACOL Bridge' and couldn't find the answer!
Several other basic texts seemed to fail to provide the answer.
Never one to leave a stone unturned, I e-mailed Ron Klinger himself for an answer!
Here is his reply!
Hi, Joe,
'Basic Bridge: The Guide to Good Acol Bidding and Play' says at page 33:
Responding to 1NT with a balanced hand:
11-12 points: 2NT (Invitational Bid) Game possible
While 3NT was successful with 12 opposite 12, this will not normally be the case unless one of the hands contains a five-card suit. Of course, sometimes the defence will be helpful, sometimes the cards lie very favourably, but in general you need 25 points for 3NT to be about a 50% chance.
The reason there is no answer in Guide To Better Acol is that 1NT : 2NT is basic and the Guide assumes the basics are known.
Regards,
Ron
I have since read some more Klinger on this subject in 'Understanding Duplicate Pairs' with Andrew Kambites. In this he makes the point in much more detail that the decision to raise with 11 points depends on many factors. He quotes a hand like the one below opposite 1NT.
♠A432
♥Q76
♦K73
♣ Q54
Obviously this is a poor hand and is unlikely to make 3NT with most 1NT openers. This hand should be passed unless you are playing teams when game should be invited because the potential gain is worth the risk.
The reasons that this is a bad hand are interesting. There are no intermediates (10s) etc that are useful but the worst feature is the number of isolated honours in each suit. This makes the hand much more difficult to play than even
♠AK32
♥Q76
♦743
♣ Q54
which is not to say that you would invite game with this one either!
Finally, there are 11 point hands which are worth a direct raise to 3NT.
e.g.
♠A10
♥1098
♦AQJ98
♣ 987
This is quite a complicated topic arising from a seemingly simple question!
posted by Joe Ridyard at 3:27 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home