Using All the Information Available

Today we look at a 1 NT hand. We will see how declarer uses all the information that is available to make a brilliant choice for a play at the end of the hand.

Norm is the dealer and bids 1 diamond with this hand:

Norm
♠ J8
♥ T986
♦ AT74
♣ AK8

He has 12 points in high cards and can count one distribution point for the second suit. He has no 5-card major, so he bids his better minor suit.

Edie is sitting to Norm’s left and was surprised that Norm opened the bidding. She holds:

Edie
♠ AK6
♥ A75
♦ KQJ85
♣ 64

Without Norm’s opening bid, she was trying to decide whether to open 1NT or 1 diamond. She has the balanced distribution and the required 15-17 HCP to open 1NT, but she was worried about the worthless doubleton. One diamond is a safer opening bid, and she could jump in diamonds at her next turn to show her strength. Then, Norm goofed up her plan with his opening 1 diamond bid. Now, bidding diamonds is out of the question. Her only alternative to bidding 1NT is to pass. She decides to risk the club trouble and overcall 1NT.

Sally happily passes with this hand:

Sally
♠ Q954
♥ QJ3
♦ 9
♣ QT753

Had there not been the 1NT overcall, Sally would have a demand bid with 6 points opposite her partner’s opening bid. She doesn’t have the required 10 points to show her club suit, therefore she would have responded with 1 spade. The overcall, however, relieves her of her obligation to keep the bidding open for her partner. A free bid over the 15-17 points shown by Edie would need to guarantee that her side had the balance of the strength in the hand. She should probably pass any hand weaker than 10 points. She does.

Walt holds

Walt
♠ T732
♥ K42
♦ 632
♣ J92

With 8 or more points, Walt might look for a 4-4 spade fit with the Stayman convention, but he has only 4 points. He passes.

Norm has just a minimum opening hand and no help from his partner. He passes also.

Sally is on lead against 1NT. She wants to find the strongest combined holding for her side. He first consideration is the suit that her partner bid, but his 1 diamond opening might be based on a 3-card suit, Sally holds only one card there, and the 1NT overcall should have the opener’s suit stopped at least once, preferably twice. Sally needs to look elsewhere for an opening lead.

Sally
♠ Q954
♥ QJ3
♦ 9
♣ QT753

The clubs are longer than the spades, however, Norm indicated that his diamonds were better than his clubs. A spade lead is worth considering, but Sally decides to go with clubs. Having just two honors at the top of the suit, she leads her 4^th highest—the 5.

Now, Edie pauses to make a plan for the hand before playing to the first trick.

Dummy ♠ T732 ♥ K42 ♦ 632 ♣ J92

Declarer ♠ AK6 ♥ A75 ♦ KQJ85 ♣ 64

In no trump, Edie starts by counting how many tricks she can take off the top. Well, with the club lead, that number is zero. She can use the rule of 11 to reason that there are 6 cards outside of Sally’s hand that are bigger than the 5 of clubs. Edie can see 3 of them, so Norm must have 3 clubs bigger than the 5. That’s good. It means that the opponents can run at most 5 tricks in clubs. Let’s suppose that happens and the 6^th trick is either a spade or a heart. Now, Edie can take 4 tricks in spades and hearts. She will need to take 3 more tricks to make the contract. The diamonds look like a good choice. Edie will need to force out the ace of diamonds, probably losing one of her top honors in the process. Then, she will have two good honor cards to cash. If the diamonds break 3-2, her two small diamonds will be set up, and she’ll make an over trick. If they break 4-1, the 4 cards will certainly be in the hand that opened 1 diamond. She might be able to win a trick with a deep finesse. She might not have the luxury of just losing the 4^th diamond trick to set up the little one. If the opponents lead hearts at every opportunity, Edie will be out of heart winners after losing the 4^th heart, and she will lose a bunch of hearts before she can cash her little diamond. Still, it looks like she has a solid plan.

Edie decides to play a small club from dummy. Norm wins with the ace, cashes the King of clubs and returns a small club.  Edie discards a small heart. Sally takes with the Queen and continues to cash her small clubs. Now Edie needs to be careful with her discards. She needs to preserve two small diamonds in dummy in case she needs to try a fancy finesse if there is a bad diamond break. She discards a small heart from dummy. Norm plays a small heart and Edie finds herself in a tight spot. She discards a spade, and plans to discard a small diamond on the next club. There goes one chance for an extra trick in diamonds.

Sally leads her last club. Edie discards a spade. Norm plays a heart, and Edie plays a diamond as planned.

Here is what is left for Edie before Sally leads. Edie hasn’t taken any tricks, yet.

Dummy ♠ T73 ♥ K4 ♦ 632 ♣

Declarer ♠ AK ♥ A7 ♦ KQJ8 ♣

Sally continues with the Queen of hearts. Edie needs to preserve the entry to the board, so she takes with the ace in her hand. Now, she needs to force out the ace of diamonds. She leads the King. Sally follows with her 9. Dummy plays small, and Norm takes the ace. He hopes that he can eventually take the ten of diamonds after the Queen and Jack are played. He decides to take out declarer’s only entry to the board by leading a heart.

The King wins on the board. Now, Edie leads a small diamond from the board and Norm plays the 7. If the diamonds break 3-2, Edie can take the Q and J of diamonds and cash the last diamond. However, if they break 4-1, this play will set up the ten for the opponents. She could, instead, decide to finesse the 8. That play works against a 4-1 break, but loses if Sally started out with the T9 of diamonds. Edie knows that Norm started with at least 3 diamonds based on his opening bid. The only way that the finesse fails is if Norm opened 1 diamond with the A74 of diamonds and the AK8 of clubs. Since Edie was paying such careful attention to the cards that Norm had played and could visualize the hand he started with, she bravely plays the 8 of diamonds on this trick.

The 8 holds. Edie breathes a sigh of relief, and she cashes the rest of her tricks to make 1 NT.

Where did these point ranges come from?

Most bridge players are familiar with "rules" like these:

• 13 points to open the bidding
•  6 points to respond to opener
• 26 points for a game in a major suit or no trump
• 28 points for a game in a minor suit
• 33 points for a small slam
• 37 points for a grand slam

Did you ever wonder where they came from?

Consider the whole deck. Each suit has 10 HCP in it, so there are 40 HCP in the deck. There are 13 tricks in the hand, so one trick is worth about 40/13 points, or slightly more than 3 points. In other words, you can expect to take a trick for every 3 points in your hand. Let's examine some of these familiar point ranges:

 

13 points to open

With 4 players and 40 points in the deck, a 10-point hand is an average hand. If your hand is 1 trick stronger than average, you should open the bidding: 13 points.

6 points to respond to opener

Your partner's opening bid is at least 13 points, but it might be much stronger. If you have 6 points, it is likely that your side has the balance of the strength (more than 20 points between you). If that is the case, the contract likely belongs to your side. You should keep the bidding open for your partner.

26 points for a game in a major or no trump

If your side has 26 points, that is 2 tricks more than average. Half the tricks is 6 1/2. Two more is 8 1/2. OK, that's a little bit of a stretch. Still, it seems to work out. Also, the scoring bonus for making a game is usually better than the penalty for going set. It's worth stretching to bid and maybe make a game.

We require the same total strength for a no trump game (9 tricks) as for a game with a trump suit (10 tricks). That is because it is usually a little easier to take tricks with a trump suit.

28 points for a game in a minor

That seems like only 2/3 of a trick more than the requirements for a game in a major. We're stretching, again.

33 points for a small slam

With 40 points in the deck, you don't expect to be missing 2 aces if your side has 33 points. You might notice that we require 5 more points to bid six than we needed to bid five. Here, the bonus for making a slam is not so lucrative that you want to risk losing the bonus for making a game.

33 points for a small slam

With 40 points in the deck, you don't expect to be missing 1 ace if your side has 33 points.