What your favorite NT range?

[mtvesuvius]

What is your favorite NT range? What system does it work best with? And what are the disadvantages and advantages? Please feel free to go off on tangents etc... This is a very general topic.

 

(Edit: I like 11-14 :))

[MFA]

12-14

Aggressive and eliminates these minimum balanced hands from the other 1-openings, a huge advantage.

[jdonn]

I prefer strong notrumps since I'm used to them. But my least favorite range is definitely any 4 point or wider range (you know what I mean Cascade, leave me alone! :)). I do understand 11-14 often means 11+ - 14 which is ok. I played 12-15 for years, and it is definitely too wide which leads to guesswork and bad results.

[bill1157]

for favorite nt range it should be split somewhat close to 50%-50% between 10-12 and 10-13 (i prefer the latter because i don't need things to be quite so precise). kBoth ranges are truly a blast.

I have played 10-13 with one pd (combined with undisciplined weak 2's: sort of EHAA i guess) and have had wonderful results with it, and so far (approx 200 deals, havent gotten a bad result. I know, don't try it in the spingold etc...

3rd/4th seat we use 12-15 nt, since 1st/2nd passes limit the hand more or less to 9 hcp max.

 

Bill

[gwnn]

14-16 is really fun in a std system, upgrading some 13 counts.

 

10-12 works nicely but I'm not comfortable with it except NV and only with a strong club system. I tried 12-15 with strong club and it's not fun to play all those 2 level contracts with 25 hcp.

[ArtK78]

10-12 Nonvul. Definitely my favorite.

 

And I did play it in the Vanderbilt. It was one of the reasons my team took the #7 seed into overtime in the second round in Philadelphia.

[rbforster]

9-11 NV? Goes well with a 15+ strong club (and 1♦ 12-14).

[david_c]

A three-and-a-quarter-point range somewhere inside 14-17.

 

Why? Well, 15-17 is too strong and 14-16 is too weak.

[mtvesuvius]

15-17 is too strong and 14-16 is too weak.

So 2 wrongs make a right :)

 

(I like 14-17 also... :))

[Cascade]

I saw a pair playing the following seven point range (leave me alone jdonn - you know what that means) 8-15 NV in 3rd seat. I liked that idea.

[whereagles]

I'm playing a 9-11 NT on 1st/2nd NV now. I like it.

 

Other seats it's a normal 15-17. I don't like weak NT in 3rd/4th because you hardly ever have a game after that.

[Cascade]

I prefer strong notrumps since I'm used to them. But my least favorite range is definitely any 4 point or wider range (you know what I mean Cascade, leave me alone! :)). I do understand 11-14 often means 11+ - 14 which is ok. I played 12-15 for years, and it is definitely too wide which leads to guesswork and bad results.

If 12-15 is too wide for 1NT does that mean that 20-21 or similar is too wide for 2NT?

[Gerben42]

One pair in my league plays 12 - 16 NT and claim it makes the opps more problems than it does to them. Not my thing.

 

I prefer weak NT, 11+ to 14 when vuln. or in 3rd seat, in dangerous positions a bit more conservative, as in "Do I really need to open this red vs white?" The reason is that I find that opps make more bad decisions facing a weak NT.

 

I would prefer 11-13 or even 10-12 if it would fit better in my system, but it messes up the normal ranges so I don't.

 

Playing "standard" with strong NT, I really prefer 14-16 over 15-17. In this case I take the optimistic 2♣-opening, including 19-20 NT, for granted. But again this makes things tougher for the opps.

 

Important thing though:

The NT range should be a function of the system your're playing!

[MickyB]

I saw a pair playing the following seven point range (leave me alone jdonn - you know what that means) 8-15 NV in 3rd seat.  I liked that idea.

When I was young and naive, I played mini NT 1st+2nd, 0-15 in 3rd, which turned out to not be very legal. We stopped after my pard, lacking a forcing opening in first seat favourable, decided to pass a flat 24 count safe in the knowledge I'd bid something. Apparently this constituted a forcing pass system :)

 

So we switched to 8-15. I went off it in the end, it was hard to know when to compete and when to double, and a constructive 1NT opening is much more useful IMO.

[Cascade]

I'm playing a 9-11 NT on 1st/2nd NV now. I like it.

 

Other seats it's a normal 15-17. I don't like weak NT in 3rd/4th because you hardly ever have a game after that.

We normally play weak first and second and strong third and fourth. We use a mixture of two and three point ranges. I like that style. Specifically our ranges are:

 

1st/2nd Not Vulnerable 10-13

 

1st/2nd Vulnerable (11)12-14

 

3rd/4th any vulnerability 15-17

 

We mix it up a bit more by opening a lot of off-shape hands 1NT especially in first and second seat. Specifically any 1=4=4=4 or 4=4=4=1 in range, some 4=4=1=4 and 4=1=4=4, five-card majors, 5-4-2-2 (usually not both majors), 6m-3-2-2 and occasionally some other shapes with flaws (bad suits, stiff honours etc) - 5-4-3-1, 6-3-3-1.

 

Within the vulnerability groups above there is room for variation based on judgement that as yet we have not specifically qualified e.g. at NIL I might pass some 10 counts and at unfavourable I am much less likely to open an 11 count and I might pass some 12 counts.

[Hanoi5]

I haven't tried any other then 15-17.

[blackshoe]

I selected "other". Specifically, none. I like Romex, and in that system 1NT is artificial, either 4-5 losers and about 18-21 HCP, unbalanced, or 19-20 balanced with 6 controls.

 

Second choice, 10-12 balanced, particularly in Romex Forcing Club.

 

Unfortunately, none of my current partners is will to play anything but 15-17 balanced in a SA or 2/1 GF context. :blink:

[Rossoneri]

I've only played 15-17 and 12-14, quite like 12-14 for it's aggressiveness, but hope to try 14-16 or 14-17 someday!

[Aberlour10]

15-18

 

because,I play mostly with random partners. I noticed the (18er) balanced hands are better to handle so in this case.

[helene_t]

I have the theory that a 3rd/4th seat 1NT opening should at least promise that I want to be in game opposite a maximum pass. This means that 13-15 can be played in all seats. Of course it depends on the rest of the system. And nonvul it's probably better to open 1NT with less than 13 in first seat.

[JLOL]

I like 10 to 12 NV but it usually creates a system hole (since it makes the other ranges too wide). For instance playing 10 to 12 in standard, a rebid of 1N shows 13 to 16 which is unplayable (alternatively you jump to 2N with 16, also unplayable). I also don't like 4 point ranges so I prefer 11 to 13 generally when NV. This goes well with a strong club system where 1D then 1N can be 14 to 16 and 1C then 1N 17 to 19. I also dont like forcing to 2N with 17, so in standard systems I prefer 12 to 14 NV.

 

When vul I like 15 to 17 in standard systems since I don't like to get to 2N with 17 as mentioned before, and 14 to 16 in strong club.

[MickyB]

Agree with the last two posts, except I strongly prefer strong no-trump in 2nd seat, and am not that fussed even 1st NV, so in practice I play strong(ish) no-trump throughout at the moment.

 

Playing strong club, that's 14-16 1st/2nd and 15-17 3rd/4th. Playing natural methods, it's 15-17 1st/2nd and 14-16 3rd/4th.

[MickyB]

I prefer strong notrumps since I'm used to them. But my least favorite range is definitely any 4 point or wider range (you know what I mean Cascade, leave me alone! :blink:). I do understand 11-14 often means 11+ - 14 which is ok. I played 12-15 for years, and it is definitely too wide which leads to guesswork and bad results.

If 12-15 is too wide for 1NT does that mean that 20-21 or similar is too wide for 2NT?

No. The problem over 1NT isn't the hands that land up in game, it's the ones that land up in 2NT or 3M having invited. Holding 10-11 opposite 12-15 will happen way more often than holding 0-4 (or whatever) opposite a 20-21, not least because the 20-21 hands are much less frequent in the first place.

[inquiry]

I like 14-16. the reasaons are:

1. More frequent than 15-17
   
2. Limits 1m-1M-1NT to smaller range, I like to open light, so having the 1NT rebid to 13 helps out
   
3. The 1NT opening bid often is still with the field, as others often upgrade 14 to 15 anyway,
   
4. Experience shows this range works well for my style of bidding
   

[awm]

I like strong notrump, especially in the context of a natural system. It seems like playing a weak notrump creates a lot of problems after opening one of a suit, because you can't rebid 1nt on weak misfitting hands, and because there are many competitive sequences where opener has "a little bit extra." I also play a lot of matchpoints and it seems like -200 vulnerable comes up a bit too often after opening a weak notrump.

 

I'm happy with 15-17 playing standard methods; in my strong club system I like 14-16 in the first two seats but 15-17 in third/fourth. Part of the reasoning is that it's nice for the 1nt rebid opposite a passed hand to deny the strength for game to help avoid getting too high, and our opening style is such that almost all hands worth game opposite a 14-count will open.