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1NT Opening Bid

No Trump opening bids show that you have a balanced hand with no void, no singleton and at the most one doubleton and in Acol you must have precisely 12-14 HCP

Suitable hands

Notrump opening bids show a balanced hand and can be made with a weak five-card major suit or a five-card minor suit.To open 1NT if possible you should try to ensure that you can control all your suits by having an honor card in each. You should also have an honor card of Queen or higher in all of the suits and your hand should not contain a void, a singleton or a worthless doubleton.
Distribution of your hand can be in either of the three following patterns
5, 3, 3, 2
or
4, 3, 3, 3
or
4, 4, 3, 2
If your cards are in either of these three patterns your hand is called “balanced” or “flat”

* If you have a 4 card major then your partner can use the Stayman Convention (2C) to discover them.          

Opening with a 1NT Bid· 12-14 HCP
· a balanced hand
· No more than 1 doubleton (2 cards)*· Without a 5 card strong major suit (2 honour cards)
· Your hand may contain a 5 card minor suit

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A doubleton when in a NoTrump contract should contain an honor card with the rank of Queen or higher. If the doubleton has two cards neither of which is a Q or higher then it is referred to as a “worthless doubleton” because effectively there are no stoppers in that suit

Exercise: With the hand below, what would you open the bidding?

Your Hand

  • ♠ K 9
  • ♥ A 7 5
  • ♦ K 10 8 7
  • ♣ A 7 6 3


Answer: Open 1NT with this hand, you have no Major suit a balanced hand and and 14 HCP

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