Hand Evaluation – The “Rules” Get Fuzzier – 22 April 2010

It’s getting to the point where the so-called “rules” you’ve all learnt are about to get fuzzier.

1NT Balanced 12-14

We open 1NT with 12 - 14 HCP. Always. Don’t we? 99 times out of a 100 – yes. BUT… you sit at the table with 13 cards in your hand, you sort them into suits and ponder the immortal question: “Is this a bidder I see before me?”

There are all sorts of marginal hands where it might be right to get in the auction even though you don’t – quite – have the time-honoured 12 HCP hand. And even if you did, what sort of 12 count is it? Are there long suits? Are there singleton honours about? Voids even?

e.g 1 ....... QJx
.............. QJx
.............. QJxx
.............. QJx

12 HCP - balanced: 1NT. Right? I'm afraid my answer goes along the lines of: “Hmm. Possibly.”

Not Vulnerable – what the heck. yeah, open it 1NT, cross your fingers and hope partner has everything else. But note that there are certain particular downsides to the hand. It’s all Queens and Jacks (Quacks). It’s flat as a pancake. It’s got 8 losers and doesn’t make the rule of 20 either. If I was Vulnerable and sitting in either the first or second position I might well decide the hand was just too dull to bother with, hope partner could open with anything, even a pre-empt or weak two, and go from there.

e.g 2 ....... QJ10
.............. QJ10
.............. QJ10x
.............. QJ10


Same HCP but marginally different with all the tens. Now I wouldn’t hesitate to open this anytime, whatever. Those 10’s are good, despite the same HCP and shape.

e.g. 3 ....... AJ10
............... Qxx
............... KJ10xx
............... xx

I know - only 11HCP! But: a good 5 card suit and a couple of 10’s make this a worthwhile shot at 1NT. If partner transfers you’ve got three cards in both majors and if the worst comes to the worst you’ve got a decent 5 card suit to run to. I know it isn’t quite a rule of 20, but you know me. I love to bid and there’s another thing: There is a slight tweaking of the point count method involved here. It is particularly important when considering borderline NT decisions and that is that you give yourself an extra HALF a point for each 10 you hold.

In a sense it’s a matter of partnership style. How aggressive are you going to be? How tolerant is partner of your aggression? Is partner solid or prone to flights of fancy? Is partner awake and sober? These are important issues, Especially the sober bit…

Marginal Opening Decisions

There’s a host of difficult hands where you don’t have 12 HCP but you should probably open the bidding. The reasons are that you get to start your conversation before they do, or else – if you later lose the auction – partner will have some idea of what might be a good lead. These hands will be mostly in the 9 - 11 HCP range and there’s a good system that will help you evaluate these hands. It’s called the Rule of 20. It applies to these weakish hands and takes account of the distributional qualities that make up for the apparent lack of points. You add your points up, then add the length of your two longest suits and if it comes to 20 – open. Like this…

e.g. 4 ....... Kxxxx
............... Qx
............... AJxxx
............... x

10 HCP. 10 cards in Spades and Diamonds. 10 + 10 = 20. So you open 1 Spade.

An extreme example might be:

e.g. 5 ........ KQxxxx
................ x
................ Axxxx
................ x

Nowadays a lot of players have in their armoury various weak 2-suited opening bids, as these kinds of hands have immense playing strength that the point count doesn’t really do justice to. But all the same this hand obeys the rule of 20, so get in there!

As usual check out the rest of the blog for previous rants…

Kit