[benlessard]

Im a french speaker native so feel free to correct some mistakes and suggestions Thanks

I want them to stop them from being afraid to open 1nt and to blast to 3NT

1NT openings

When you have 15-17 and your hand is balanced open 1Nt. A failure to open 1NT with a balanced hand in the appropriate range will lead to future problems that may easily be unsolvable.

AKQ
xxx
AQJTx
xx

You didnt want to open 1NT because you didnt have stoppers in the rounded suits (H+C) and since you had good diamonds you say to yourself what could go wrong if I open 1D ? Partner replies 1H (not really surprising) now what do you do ?

If you rebid in Notrumps the strenght wont be right. 1NT it will show 12-14 balanced while 2NT will show 18-19 balanced. Note that it wont solve your weakness in clubs, in fact they are more likely to lead clubs now than if you had opened 1NT.

If you rebid 2D (usually showing 6D and 11-15) partner may pass with 9 pts and you might miss game, also partner may easily have Qxxxx in hearts and you will play 2D instead of 2H (partner will NOT repeat a 5 card heart suit over 2D I must insist its totally wrong to repeat a 5 card suit when partner could have one or even zero heart). Note that if partner pass 2D its still possible that 1NT is better anyway.

What about raising to 2H ? Its a bit wrong on strenght (most of the 2H raise are 11-15 and you have a great 16, its also wrong on trumps support partner is going to expect 4 or at least Hxx and a singleton not xxx and no singleton. Note that 3H really show 4 trumps so its not right either.

If partner replies 1S or 1NT instead of 1H you will have similar or even worse problems.

Think about what you would bid over 1D-1S-?? & 1D-1Nt-??
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rules for responding to a 1NT opening.

1- If you think 3NT is the best contract do not overthink too much just bid 3Nt.

Axx----------------------QJx---------------ATxx
x------------------------Qxx---------------Qxx
KQTxx--------------------Kxxxxx------------Kxx
T9xx---------------------Q-----------------JTx

With the first and 2nd hand there is no point asking for majors and there is no point in showing the diamonds since you do not plan to play 5D anyway. With the 3rd hand even if opener has 4S its possible that you wont be able to ruff anything and 3Nt will be better.

On the 3 hands above and on many other its possible that 3Nt isnt going to be the best contract but bridge is a game of odds and if the odds are that 3Nt is the best contract you should just bid it. Using a delayed route to reach 3NT will suggest that others contracts are available and opener will always take that into account and it might lead you away from the winning 3Nt.





2- If you have a 5M start with a transfer no matter how strong or weak you are.

A - if you are very weak 0-2 pts its likely 2M will play better than 1NT
you will be able to make tricks with little trumps that will be completely useless in 1NT.
Playing in trumps often give you rare entries to finesse toward the strong hand. Even if that mean ruffing a winner.

B- If you are weak 3-6 pts

you will be able to make tricks with little trumps that might be useless in 1NT.
Playing in trumps often give you entries to finesse toward the strong hand.
If opponents compete opener might be able to compete to 3M and make it.


1Nt--(P)--2D--(2S) Note that 2D is a transfers to H.

Opener will be able to bid 3H instead of defending against 2S and maybe make it or go down only 1 instead of getting -110 or -140 defending 2S. While If you had passed instead of making a transfer over 2S opener wont be able to compete to 3H. Note that if you defend 2S opener will often be able to lead H knowing you have 5 of them.

[Vampyr]

I think you want to show the auctions (and in come cases the hands) you are talking about. Also if they are not used to playing transfers but understand weak takeouts, the former will be a distraction.

[Zelandakh]

2 is also completely wrong, no? At least my understanding of SA is that you bid GF 5M-4oM hands via Stayman. I also think you display a basic misunderstanding of the 16-18 range. This is typically part of a conservative system where you do not open balanced 12 counts. Therefore the 1NT rebid range is 13-15. I know this is not popular in modern bridge and probably not good but you also need to loosen up their opening requirements if you wish them to make these adjustments.

The problem you have is really that you are not reaching the but rather trying to un-teach them. It is easy to take a complete novice and teach them to open 1NT on any balanced hand with 15-17 hcp. If they never learn to worry about stoppers then they will not. It is much harder to go against what someone else has taught them and has worked for them for 20 years. Why should they trust you over the previous one? My experience of the 16-18 crowd is many of them know that this is old fashioned and simply do not care. Moreover they are very comfortable with the extra point.

You might have more luck working within the system they play initially and just teaching them not to worry about stoppers so much but rather to bid their hand pattern. Vampyr's point about transfers is similar.

[Antrax]

What's wrong with never claiming?

[blackshoe]

It slows the game, assuming the claimer can explain his line of play well enough to satisfy the opponents.

[Zelandakh]

In a beginner's game, claiming tends to slow the game down because the opponents cannot fully understand even a well-explained claim and want to see how it goes. I sometimes mark an opponent's BBO profile that I should not make claims against them.

[benlessard]

Quote

2 is also completely wrong, no? At least my understanding of SA is that you bid GF 5M-4oM hands via Stayman.

I do not plan to teach Smolen too soon, they do ok with transfers and stayman but I dont really see some 2nd and 3rd round bidding.

As for 16-18 vs 15-17... I already have a page explaining http://www.phillipal....com/BALHDS.HTM

Its just silly to pass most 12 count at MP and a 12-15 rebid is just a bit too wide.

Its a crowd of 20 tables so IMO I wont be able to reach everybody no matter what I do.

[Zelandakh]

"Reverse Smolen" is a part of SAYC and not difficult. I would not be suggesting teaching beginners Smolen either.

[Antrax]

My limited experience agrees with Zel. In my club, I only claim if one hand is clearly high (that is to say, having a 13th card of a suit in NT is not good enough). Otherwise, playing it out takes considerably less time.

[blackshoe]

Zelandakh, on 2013-September-23, 07:40, said:

In a beginner's game, claiming tends to slow the game down because the opponents cannot fully understand even a well-explained claim and want to see how it goes. I sometimes mark an opponent's BBO profile that I should not make claims against them.

Fair enough.

[blackshoe]

benlessard, on 2013-September-23, 07:58, said:

I do not plan to teach Smolen too soon, they do ok with transfers and stayman but I dont really see some 2nd and 3rd round bidding.

As for 16-18 vs 15-17... I already have a page explaining http://www.phillipal....com/BALHDS.HTM

Its just silly to pass most 12 count at MP and a 12-15 rebid is just a bit too wide.

Its a crowd of 20 tables so IMO I wont be able to reach everybody no matter what I do.

No need for Smolen. With 5-4 in the majors, always start with Stayman. With game values, jump in the five card suit if opener rebids 2♦, thus giving a perfectly natural description of your hand.

Zelandakh, on 2013-September-23, 08:56, said:

"Reverse Smolen" is a part of SAYC and not difficult. I would not be suggesting teaching beginners Smolen either.

Heh. It seems very strange to call a natural method, and one which predates Smolen, "reverse Smolen". Far as I'm concerned, there ain't no such animal.

[GreenMan]

blackshoe, on 2013-September-23, 09:28, said:

Heh. It seems very strange to call a natural method, and one which predates Smolen, "reverse Smolen". Far as I'm concerned, there ain't no such animal.

I've called it that, usually in jest, since "everybody" these days checks Smolen on their card even though it rarely/never comes up at the table. In fact I first encountered the term on BBF. Of course no one would say it to a novice because they wouldn't get the joke yet.

[Vampyr]

blackshoe, on 2013-September-23, 09:28, said:

No need for Smolen. With 5-4 in the majors, always start with Stayman. With game values, jump in the five card suit if opener rebids 2♦, thus giving a perfectly natural description of your hand.


Heh. It seems very strange to call a natural method, and one which predates Smolen, "reverse Smolen". Far as I'm concerned, there ain't no such animal.

Lighten up. It's a joke.

[benlessard]

I think its simpler to just stick to transfers. I will just make the emphasis that bidding a new suit after a transfers is natural and GF and bidding a minor after stayman is the same.

Just explaning that 1Nt-2C-2H-3NT showed 4S by inference was a bit painful.

[blackshoe]

Vampyr, on 2013-September-23, 13:25, said:

Lighten up. It's a joke.

You're forgetting that I have no sense of humor. Weren't you the one who told us that?

[akwoo]

I think the hardest thing in teaching people new to duplicate is getting them over their fear of going down.

Their psychological scoring of hands is frequently like this:

Making any contract: +1
Going down due to exceptional defense: 0
Going down due to being too high (including sacrifices and bad breaks): -2
Going down due to misplay: -5
Defending: 0

They particularly don't want to play in NT because playing NT is harder and there is a large chance they will go down due to misplay.

Obviously, with this scoring, they are going to underbid a lot and never sacrifice.

[Zelandakh]

akwoo, on 2013-September-30, 11:12, said:

They particularly don't want to play in NT because playing NT is harder and there is a large chance they will go down due to misplay.

I used to teach my students that if they wanted to play in game but no fit has emerged and they did not know what to do next, just bid 3NT, even if distributional. I think that, together with a weak NT, probably helped get over any misgivings about playing NT. I agree though - beginners are generally too timid and that is why it is important to encourage the importance of game bidding and preemption early.

[GreenMan]

At our semimonthly party-bridge game, with some partners, if they're going to be playing the hand I try to steer it into notrump because they never think to pull trump anyway.