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Alert or not?


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In my local club with one of my partners, we play 1NT 14-16 balanced. Last week, I had the following hand:

[hv=s=sjhxxxdaqxxxcqxxx]133|100|Scoring: MP[/hv]

The bidding went:

1NT - all pass.

 

I alerted 1NT as 14-16, my hand came on the table and my LHO said my partner should alert that I can have 9HCP :) . She usually knows a lot about regulations, but this is imo insane, since it's just hand evaluation. I asked her if you play 15-17 NT if you have to alert when your partner can pass with 8HCP and she said 'yes'.

 

Is this correct? I mean, this hand is not even close to a 9 count worth imo, but it does have 9 'HCP'...

 

Note: no TD or anything was called, she just mentioned it and didn't make a big deal out of it.

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The usual answer is that alerting regulations depend on where you are playing, so we cannot answer your question.

 

However I can't imagine any location where the pass would be alertable. If you frequently passed a 14-16 1NT opening on 9+ HCPs and your partner frequently psyched a 1NT opening with an 8-count you'd be in trouble, but that's a different matter.

 

There is an English regulation that you need to alert the pass if it denies a zero count. Some pairs have an agreement that they would never pass out a (weak) NT with less than a 3-count - they would try Stayman, or psyche a transfer. In that case the pass must be alerted.

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Its worth noting that I can envision cases where a pass would require an alert.

Some players like to "trap pass" when competing against aggressive balancers.

Its possible that your opponent was worried that you and your partner had a similar agreement.

 

However, with the hand in question, I think that the pass is "normal"

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