Doubletons and 1NT Opening

[Simmpleton]

I was in a bookstore today and picked up the Idiot's Guide to Bridge. The author said that one could open a balanced hand with 1NT even with two doubletons. Is this a standard variation on bidding practices, or is it his own departure?

[the hog]

The answer to this question depends on what you and your partner have agreed to play. Some players believe in showing the essential nature of the hand and would freely open 1NT on a 2-2-4-5 or 2-2-5-4 shape, even if both doubletons were weak. Others might open only if both doubletons held an honor, others might open 1NT if at least 1 doubleton had an honour, and others would not dream of opening 1NT at all.

 

Hands with 5-4 or 4-5 in the Majors are more frequently opened 1M, though with weak Ms again many would prefer 1NT. So as you can see, there are many variations possible.

[cherdano]

Playing strong NT, it is quite popular to open 1NT on 2452 or 2425 hands whose strength is in your strong NT range. If you have Qx AJxx Kx AQ9xx and you open 1♣, you have no good rebid over partner's 1♠ response. 1NT would show 12-14 pts, 2N would show 18-19 pts, and 2♣ would misdescribe the nature of your hand (and be an underbid as well). A reverse to 2♥ shows a better hand and better suits for most players. Especially when you have honors in the doubletons, a 1NT opening may be the most descriptive way to bid this hand in a standard strong NT structure.

[1eyedjack]

I was in a bookstore today and picked up the Idiot's Guide to Bridge. The author said that one could open a balanced hand with 1NT even with two doubletons. Is this a standard variation on bidding practices, or is it his own departure?

I would say that it is a practice that teachers tend to discourage in their students, who then understandably become fixated on this issue, but which good players accept as the norm. I really do not know why there is that discrepancy, and it is refreshing to see that there are some books out there that teach this from the outset.

[helene_t]

I would say that it is a practice that teachers tend to discourage in their students, who then understandably become fixated on this issue, but which good players accept as the norm.  I really do not know why there is that discrepancy, and it is refreshing to see that there are some books out there that teach this from the outset.

This is my impression as well but I do find it strange.

 

If you open 1NT you have already described your hand in terms of strength, in terms of not having a singleton and in terms of not having 5-4 in the majors or a six-card in a major. Partner can ask with Stayman if he needs to know more.

 

If you open in a suit, it is much less obvious that the rest of the auction will be easy.

 

Important point: the reason of opening 1NT with certain hands is that those hands can get impossible to rebid if you open in a suit. The considerations depend on whether you play a weak (say 12-14) or strong (say 15-17) 1NT:

 

Weak 1NT: If you open in a suit, the only way of describing your weakness in the rebid may be to rebid your suit. Rebidding a 5-card should be avoided to the extent possible, even if the suit is good.

 

Strong 1NT: You often don't have a decent rebid if partner replies 1NT and you're too strong for passing but too weak for a reverse. Even if you do have the overall strength for a reverse, reverses are awkward and should be avoided if there is a simpler solution (like opening 1NT). Also, if the opps interfere, you may find yourself in a position where you can't show your extra strength without promising more strength or more unbalanced distribution than you actually have.

 

So the main criterion for opening 1NT is not whether you really like to open 1NT (unless you have 5-4 in the majors or a singleton). The criterion should be: are you confident that you will be able to describe your hand if you don't open 1NT? This is subtle because there are so many ways the auction may proceed. But for a start, this will do:

 

Do you have a 4432, 5322 or 4333-shape, or a 5422 or 6322 with a minor being the longest suit?

Yes: Always open 1NT if the strength is appropriate.

No: Never open 1NT

[SoTired]

When teaching a beginner, you have much to cover, so you can't waste time on low frequency bids. Either you teach 5422 is balanced or you don't.

 

Additionally, a beginner has no bridge judgement, yet. Teaching opening 1N on 5422 "sometimes" will lead the student to more disasters than successes.

 

I haven't taught beginners for a while, but it seems to me, you should teach beginners that 5422 is NOT a 1N opener. Let them advance to opening 1N on some 5422's later.

[1eyedjack]

When teaching a beginner, you have much to cover, so you can't waste time on low frequency bids. Either you teach 5422 is balanced or you don't.

 

Additionally, a beginner has no bridge judgement, yet. Teaching opening 1N on 5422 "sometimes" will lead the student to more disasters than successes.

 

I haven't taught beginners for a while, but it seems to me, you should teach beginners that 5422 is NOT a 1N opener. Let them advance to opening 1N on some 5422's later.

Agree for the most part.

 

Only problem with this is that most beginners regard their teacher as one step removed from Lord God Almighty, so getting them to evolve "outside the box" meets with resistance. I suppose that by the time that they are ready to evolve they will be receptive to such ideas.

 

This is not meant as a negative reflection on the teacher. Much of the time what is taught is not the teacher's preference when playing with an experienced player. The teacher just omits to mention sometimes that there are other methods available which may be preferable when they have garnered the experience to handle them.

 

In a similar vein I repeatedly encounter beginners who will always return the suit led by partner at trick 1, supposedly on teacher's "advice", despite the evidence in dummy by now staring at them in the face that a switch is required. If the student truly has the intellect of a Zabriskan fontema then perhaps the policy is right more often than wrong. The process of later reversing advice which perhaps was appropriate at an earlier time (but is no longer) can have the effect of adding unnecessary confusion. It is not an easy balancing act for the teacher to master.

[helene_t]

Either you teach 5422 is balanced or you don't.

This makes sense. Then I'd go for always open 1NT with 5422, even with 5♠4♥ if it's too complicated to require the 5-card to be a minor, or the 5-card to be lower-ranking than the 4-card, or whatever.

 

Beginners (including many who have been playing for 30 years and may be good card players) open 1NT far too little. Maybe they were tought by Culbertson's books from the before-Stayman era. Or maybe they want to avoid notrump contracts because they play cash-the-winners-first when declaring. But I think the main reason is that:

- whenever a 1NT opening is passed out and it turns out badly, it's the 1NT opening's fault

- whenever they fail to open 1NT and it turns out badly, it's to blame on the rebid, not the opening which automatically lead to an awkward rebid.

 

If anything, beginers should be tought to open 1NT more often than advanced players do. It makes things easier. When they learn to chose the least evil among awkward rebids and to identify situations in which the awkward rebid is relatively unlikely to occur, they can learn a slightly more disciplined 1NT opening.

[kenberg]

As a beginner, I read Goren. Much derided as stone age bridge, the man had some good advice for beginners: In choosing your opening bid, give some thought to your rebid. If you hold 2-4-5-2, and you have no idea what you will do after 1D-1S, then consider opening 1NT. This is not too much to ask of a beginner. With 4-2-5-2, I have no problems after 1D-1H, and so I often open such a hand 1D, especially if most of my values are in diamonds and spades.

 

By the way, although I haven't looked it up, my guess is that Charlie would say you should give some thought to opening 1H instead of 1N with 2-4-5-2. He did that sort of thing. At any rate, I see no reason why a beginner should not be encouraged to give some thought to the question "If I do such and such, what is likely to happen next?". Somewhere else in his writings Charlie mentions that folks who don't like thinking that way should be encouraged to play 500 (a fun bidding and trick game with considerably less complexity).

 

As you can probably see, I am opposed to this "Bridge for Idiots", "Quantum Mechanics without Mathematics", "Brain Surgery for the Clumsy" etc way of thinking.

[Apollo81]

Don't open 1NT with a 5 card major unless you are 5332.

 

Aside from that I would consider it normal expert practice to open 1NT with two doubletons. If the high cards are concentrated in the long suits then most experts would probably open a suit. I don't know why people tell B/I players not to open 1NT with two doubletons.

[hotShot]

I was in a bookstore today and picked up the Idiot's Guide to Bridge. The author said that one could open a balanced hand with 1NT even with two doubletons. Is this a standard variation on bidding practices, or is it his own departure?

Tactics are an important part of Bridge. Taking the scoring method into account is something that you have to do, once you leave the novice/beginner level.

At matchpoint scoring you will often get better results playing NT instead of a minor.

So tactical considerations say that if you can't play a major suit contract, prefer NT to a minor contract.

As a consequence you will have to start to treat minors and majors differently. This makes things more difficult, so some teachers simplify here for the first lectures.

I used to teach Bridge to science students who were used to learn really complicated stuff, so I never did that myself.

 

Another thing that teachers often do, is teaching very solid point ranges, to adapt for the lack of card play experience of the new players.

 

In result oriented games, you will always consider opening NT, if you think that:

- you might get a rebid problem

- you will get about the same number of tricks than playing in a minor and the scoring method is MP

- you might make 9 tricks in NT but not 11 tricks in the minor

- you want to make it harder for opps to find their major fit (1NT has a preemptive effect)

[Fluffy]

Considering 5422 as balanced or not won't make a big difference. At first I was taught that 2 doubletons meant unbalanced, after some time that rule was relaxed a bit, and in the end I can use 5422 (and 6322) as both bal or unbal as I want each time.

 

 

probably too early for this, but with enough experience your eyes might tell you the answer

 

AQ

Kxxx

Qxxxx

Kx

 

This is balanced

 

opposite to:

 

Ax

KQ10x

AQJxxx

xx

 

Wich is a 2 suiter.

[the hog]

Don't open 1NT with a 5 card major unless you are 5332.

 

Aside from that I would consider it normal expert practice to open 1NT with two doubletons.  If the high cards are concentrated in the long suits then most experts would probably open a suit.  I don't know why people tell B/I players not to open 1NT with two doubletons.

You probably don't mean that.

Perhaps one should also say, "Don't make categorical rules, but rather use your judgement."

Qxxx xxxxx AK AK

[mike777]

1) I agree using judgement and simply playing and defending basic hands is much more important than focusing so much on a system.

2) As I have mentioned before, is not judgement some set of "rules", conscious or not? Otherwise it seems the other choice is to call judgment as some version of a random guess. I just consider those with better judgement to have a better rule set and can consult and act on them faster than those with poor judgement.

 

One possible set of rules may simply to be better/faster at reading people at the table than someone else. Another maybe a set of rules on honor location or late in match play.

 

One basic "rule" may simple be better discipline at counting out the hands.

[barmar]

Ax

KQ10x

AQJxxx

xx

 

Wich is a 2 suiter.

I don't think we have to worry too much about the optimal way to bid 14-card hands.

[kenberg]

Ax

KQ10x

AQJxxx

xx

 

Wich is a 2 suiter.

I don't think we have to worry too much about the optimal way to bid 14-card hands.

The real issue is in the play, where you must decide whether to count winners or losers.