Evaluating HCP in determining whether to open 1NT

How would you open this hand?

♠ K104

♥ AQ82

♦ Q8

♣ A753

With 15 HCP, it’s tempting to open in 1NT, which shows 15-17 HCP and a balanced hand. This is a balanced hand and it has 15 HCP. But two of the points are the doubleton diamond queen. Is that worth 2 HCP?

Here’s what happened when South, in second seat, opened the hand 1NT:

South             West   North             East

                     P

1NT                 P         2C                   P

2H                   P         4C*                 P

4S**                P         6H                   All Pass

*Gerber (asking for aces)

**Two aces

Here’s the layout:

 North

                        ♠ AQJ

                        ♥ KJ103

                        ♦ 96

                        ♣ KJ109

West                                        East

♠ 9875                                     ♠ 632

♥ 965                                       ♥ 74

♦ AJ1042                                 ♦ K753

♣ Q                                         ♣ 8642

                        South

                        ♠ K104

                        ♥ AQ82

                        ♦ Q8

                        ♣ A753

West led the diamond ace and east signaled she had the king by playing the diamond 7, so south lost the first two tricks for down one. Lots of people don’t go to slam holding a worthless doubleton without confidence that partner has a first or second round stopper in the suit. But North was aggressive and should not have jumped to slam because she only has 15 HCP. If partner is at the bottom of his bid with 15 HCP, there should be no slam and that’s the situation here.

The question is, how to invite? The answer is not an ace-asking auction. After South bids 2H, North can cue bid her spade ace. That would not be showing a spade suit because if North had four spades but not four hearts, she would bid 2N, then if South has four spades as well as four hearts, he can bid 3S. And if North had five spades to go with her four hearts there is no reason to bid the spades after finding the 4-4 heart fit. So for her to bid the spade ace, that should be confirming a heart fit and showing slam interest and South could either accept the invitation by cue bidding an ace or just going directly to blackwood. In this instance, with a minimum, South would close out in four hearts.

However, South arguably erred by opening this hand 1NT. His doubleton diamond queen is not worth 2 HCP. A doubleton king would be worth 3 HCP because it is a trick unless the ace is behind him. The doubleton queen cannot be counted on as a trick or even a possible trick, so it is an illusory 2 HCP. The hand could (and probably should) have been downgraded to 13-14  HCP and opened 1C. When North bids 1H, South would then bid 2H showing a normal opening hand with seven losers. North would forget about slam and close out in four hearts. However, many players would still open this 1NT.

The hand was played 13 times in a club game. Five pairs were in slam, all going down. I don’t know how the bidding went elsewhere but I would bet that all slam players opened the hand 1NT and those that were in four hearts (five pairs; two others played in 3NT and one played in 5 hearts) opened it 1C because if it’s opened 1NT by South, any good player holding the north cards with 15 HCP opposite at least 15 HCP will look for slam.

6-5 Hand and Unfairness at the Bridge Table

You are West, in third seat. How would you open this hand:

♠ 4

♥ 6

♦ A10743

♣ AQ10654

Only 10 HCP but 6-5 distribution. Many players who play reverses would open 1D and then rebid 2C because a reverse (opening 1C and rebidding 2D) would promise 17 HCP at least. But if you have 6-5 distribution and an opening hand, you may still reverse by opening 1C and then rebidding the diamonds twice to show that your distribution is 6-5 rather than 5-4.

But is this an opening hand? It only has 10 HCP. According to modern bidding practice, this qualifies as an opening hand because it has 10 HCP and 10 cards in its two longest suits (called the Rule of 20). With only five losers and 2-1/2 quick tricks and satisfying the rule of 20, this hand clearly qualifies. So the corollary to this rule is that if your hand is 6-5 and you have enough points to qualify for an opening hand, it is strong enough to reverse. Here’s the layout followed by the bidding:

East dealer

North

                        ♠ AQJ32

                        ♥ KQ9832

                        ♦ --

                        ♣ K9

West                                        East

♠ 4                                           ♠ 10987

♥ 6                                           ♥ A4

♦ A10743                                ♦ KQ92

♣ AQ10654                            ♣ 872

                        South

                        ♠ K65

                        ♥ J1075

                        ♦ J865

                        ♣ J3

But as played at a local bridge club, North opened the bidding out of turn with a conventional Precision opening bid of 1C which shows 16+ HCP and says nothing about clubs. The director was called and East did not accept the bid so North was advised that when the bidding came around to him he could make a “comparable” call but if he did anything else his partner would be barred for one round. East and South both passed and West opened 1C. North bid 1H, which the director ruled was a “comparable call.” This was incorrect (see below), but the bidding went on as follows:

West  North East   South

                            P          P

1C       1H           1NT      P

2D       2H           3D       4H

5D       All Pass

At this point the director showed up and pulled the boards, saying everyone would get a “No Play” because the next round had already begun. West protested, saying that they had to wait more than five minutes to start the round because NS was slow in playing the previous round and then north’s bid out of turn caused an additional delay of a few minutes while the director was called and had to make a ruling, so EW should not be penalized, but should be protected. He also said that his opinion was that 5D making would be a top board and a “No Play” would damage EW. The director was not persuaded.

After the game the printout revealed west was correct because at all 11 tables the NS pairs were in 4 or 5 hearts, making. No E/W was in 5D. 5D is cold, but even if it goes set one trick it would be a top for EW. The only problems are the 4-0 trump break to the jack and playing clubs correctly. But normal play when there are four trump to the jack missing is to first lead to the hand that has two of the top three honors to discover the distribution of the missing cards because that keeps a two-way finesse in play. When west leads to dummy’s KQ and reveals that South holds all four trump, the finesse is easy to take back to west’s hand to the A-10. Played correctly, West loses only the spade ace and the club king. Had North had all four diamonds, West could come back to his hand with the ace and finesse through the board which would still have the Q-9.

As to playing the clubs, the correct play is to put the king in North's hand since he showed a big hand and finesse by playing the 10. If North wins the jack, then play the ace hoping that North had KJ tight. As the hands exist, though, the finesse of the 10 forces out the king and the jack falls under the play of the Ace and the queen.

Even though it is clear that fairness requires that EW get a top board since all the scores (except one where North bid 6H and went down one) are NS and the delay was clearly not the fault of EW, the director refused to grant EW equity.

In a telephone call to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), West was advised that once cards are pulled from the board, the hand must be played, either immediately or as a late play, further buttressing the EW claim that they should have been awarded the top score on that hand. The ACBL said that at the very least EW should get an average plus, but the director only awarded the average of their game, which was less than an average plus.

The ACBL further stated that the director was wrong in ruling that North’s 1H overcall was “comparable” to a Precision 1C opening bid and that his partner should have been barred from bidding for one round. Since his partner passed anyway, that didn’t matter, but she took her unauthorized information (that North had 16+ HCP) to jump to game when she only had 6 HCP, something she’s unlikely to do without knowing that North had a huge hand, which she could not know from the bidding as it existed.