1NT opening bid, responses and rebids etc. (complete)

This chapter also includes some remarks about this presentation in general.
The 1NT opening in MAF is very similar to the strong Acol 1NT opening. A balanced hand with a strength of 15-17 HCP's is required.
The responses and the follow up bidding in MAF do not differ from Acol too. Nevertheless the conventional Stayman/Jacoby complex will be defined accurately in order to be clear.

As you will see later on in the next chapters, the remaining opening bids are all (some more and some others less) different from what you may have seen elsewhere.
You are always free to adapt the conventions to your own preferences. We will not repeat this all the time, but throughout MAF you will have this freedom. If you consider to try MAF, I even recommend that you start with a simplified system, because otherwise you have to practice so many new conventions, that you will get lost.

Hands containing a 5+card major, a 6+card minor suit, voids or singletons are unbalanced and should never be opened with 1NT.
In the 1 NT diagram you can see that only four distributions are allowed. The frequencies of occurrence, calculated with the help of the author's probability tables, are also mentioned in this diagram. This will be done, throughout this homepage, every time a similar diagram for another opening bid is shown.
Nearly half of all possible bridge hands (45.1%) are "balanced" according the above definition. Only 1 of 10 balanced hands is strong enough to be opened with 1NT.

Besides the main diagrams, like the 1 NT diagram where the main system agreements are defined, many auxiliary tables exist like here e.g. the response guide which gives a receipt which convention should be used with certain hands given. In this table you find of course links to the tables where the relevant conventions are defined.

This site is interlinked on many places. It is not required to read all these links. You should do this only if you need a sidewalk to refresh your memory or to get some relevant information. Usually there are no return buttons. The main- and sub menu however are always available and may help you to return to where you came from. But there is another simple way too, which will be explained in the next small character paragraph.

SOME REMARKS ON VIEWING THIS SITE
"use your browser's functionality"

If you are a less experienced internet user I think that it is probably important to try to read these small characters.

If you use Netscape you can " enlarge / reduce " the characters on your screen by pressing " Ctrl+] / Ctrl+[ ". It is OK if you want to try this trick right away.
There are many links in this site which link to the same target. Once arrived at the target, the site cannot remember where you came from, only the browser can. So, after linking, you can only return through the browser's back button.
Netscape's browser designers however have developed a gadget which is woth mentioning in this context. It may be very valuable, especially for visitors who own small 14" monitors.
Many visitors perhaps do not know that it is possible to to get the images "full screen", i.e. without title and menus around the actual page. Under Netscape's (4.0) right mouse button is a "pop up menu" which holds, among others, the command "open frame in new window". Clicking this command opens a second browser window with a full screen image. In this window you may link to every place you want. After this you can browse, using the browser's forward/backward buttons, surf through all the places where you've been. The former framed window remains available in the "Window95-program-bar" (the bar which starts at the "START" button). This right clicking also works when the cusor is over a link; clicking shows the link full screen.
You can repeat the making of new windows often, and so be in many places of a framed site (like this one) simultaneously.
Also it is not necessary to remember yourself where you are, when linking. The browserprogram will do this for you. All you have to do is: do the linking from the full screen window. The former framed window will remain, as said before, in the (thing I called, not knowing the official name:) "Windows-program-bar".
It is even possible in Netscape, very convenient, to right-click a link. As a result a menu pops up in which you may choose among others for open in a new window. This receipt also works on the buttons, the way I made them.

In the Internet Explorer I could not find similar convenient features. However the menu "view|internet options|general|fonts|fontsize" enables you to change the character size in a small range and in a very laborious way. I could not find a way to open several windows simultaneously, as easy as Netscape does this. Using the "history button" it is possible to go back to pages where you have been before. You can only observe them full screen (without my button- and title-bars, which is important for users of 14" monitors) if you can identify the names I gave to the relevant pages. The "history window" contains also titles of pages that you cannot know and do not need not to know; they belong to pages that make my site work like it does. In the history window they may confuse site-visitors. Further you should clean the history window (view|internet options|.....|clean history) before you start studying a site like this one. You can return to the framed original page by choosing for "index" in the history window.
After all you will understand why I use Netscape. It is not impossible that IExplorer yet has more tools (macro's or something like that) with regard to the usability then I know off, because I have very little experience with that program.

Remarks like the above are generally made in separate pages, which through links are connected to some relevant place in the text. Because this remark is about "HOW TO LINK and RETURN AGAIN", we have made an exception here. You, now knowing how to link, will not be bothered again with interruptions like this one.




We resume the subject bridge and the 1NT opening again. The cheapest response is generally reserved for the Stayman convention, so also in MAF. Of the remaining responses the four cheapest ones are allocated to four Jacoby transfers (for every suit one). Next table is a kind of a guide, with regard to type of hand you hold, which enables you to choose the appropriate convention to apply after a 1NT opening.



 
 
CONVENTION to APPLY by the RESPONDER weak <=7 limit 8-9 strong 10-12 very strong >=12
 
ENHANCED STAYMAN 4+card and 5+card in MaS no 5-card MaS and no 6-card MiS 4-card MaS and 5-card MiS 4-card MaS and 5-card MiS
 
JACOBY TRANSFERS 5+card MaS or 6+card MiS 5+card MaS or 6+card MiS 5+card MaS or 6+card MiS 5+card MaS and 4-card MiS
 


MaS = Major Suit
MiS = Minor Suit


It is always possible to explain in words again, what stated in the table already, but I think there no point in repeating everything every time. So the many tables, incorporated in this site, will only be clarified when and where it is really necessary.

The next table for instance describes the 1NT opening completely, when you also include the linked information. The linked information may be considerable because, the pages linked to, may contain new links again.
Similar tables, which describe opening bids, are called "diagrams" throughout this site.



1NT balanced*   PASS   <= 7
  a:  4,3,3,3-distribution 15-17 2 § Extended Stayman *** >=8
b:  4,4,3,2-distribution 15-17 2 ¨ Jacoby-transfer  to: 2 ©, 5+ in © >=0
c:  5,3,3,2-distr. 5-MiS** 15-17 2 © Jacoby-transfer to: 2 ª, 5+ in ª >=0
d:  5,4,2,2-distr. 5-MiS 15-17 2 ª Jacoby-transfer  to: 3 § 6+ in § >=0
type frequency %
absolute relative
a: 1.085 23.48
b: 2.209 47.80
c: 0.791 17.12
d: 0.536 11.60
total: 4.620 100.00
2NT Jacoby-transfer  to: 3 ¨ 6+ in ¨ >=0
2 § 5+ in §, 4+ in ¨, singleton MaS** >=10
3 ¨ 5+ in ¨, 4+ in §, singleton MaS >=10
2 © 6+ in ©, interested in slam >=12
3 ª 6+ in ª, interested in slam >=12
3NT balanced 10-13
4 § Gerber: How many Aces? >=12
* balanced: i.e. one of the distributions a:, b:, c: or d: and none 5-card MaS
** MiS = Minor Suit, MaS = Major Suit (these abbreviations are used elsewhere too, throughout this site)
*** Please also have a look at the extended stayman table and the jacoby transfer table    © Chiel Verwoest

return to : LINKS GENERAL OVERVIEWS

Diagrams like this contain a lot of information. They should be studied carefully and critically. Only a few special topics will be selected to discuss in more detail in additional text.
This remark will, like similar remarks, never be repeated again, as I have tried to reduce the text to a compact minimum everywhere on this site.
 

On a Stayman 2§ response only six rebids are allowed: 2¨, 2©, 2ª, 2NT, 3§ and 3©, which all have special meaning as may be seen in the Extended Stayman table. In this table the continuation of the auction is also represented.
On each of the four Jacoby transfer responses the opener has to bid a relay (i.e. the cheapest possible bid). The responder's second response describes his hand accurately. All this is represented in the Jacoby transfer table, which also includes the opener's second rebid.


 
If you arrived here because you wanted to read about the "sohl principle" then we give you the opportunity to link to various other paragraphs where remarks are made about "sohl":

1§-Sohl 1¨-Sohl 1©-Sohl 1ª-Sohl 2©/ª-Sohl 2NT-Sohl 3NT-Sohl
the SOHL overview

You, as a visitors of this site, probably all knew the conventions of mr. Stayman and mr. Jacoby for a long time. But did you ever look at it it this way?
Please note that after 1NT, the five cheapest bids:

As we shall see later on the forcing 1NT convention, well known in the USA, uses the same principles
This principle is also encountered in the convention of mr Lebensohl. They are also applied in similar conventions named Rubensohl, "Staymansohl" and YAS="Yet Another Sohl".
Inspired by YAS we shall call these responses on the 1-level opening bids, "Sohl-responses". They might all have been called also "the generalised Stayman/Jacoby complex"
In MAF the sohl principle will be extended to all 1-level open bids and to the major suit opening bids on 2-level. Details will be given when you arrive there.
For an overview, and in order to find links to other sections of this site about Sohl please click on Sohl

If the opponents intervene with overcalls or doubles (conventional or not, it does not matter) we of course take note of this. When however the overcall does not prevent our planned response the overcall is further neglected. So a double is always noticed and further neglected.
Sometimes interventions after 1 NT openings are rather awkward, then the old "Mean Awkward Filibuster" called Lebensohl is put into action.
On the other hand interventions may be used to enlarge our bidding power, as always in such cases a double or a redouble is added to the remaining possible responses. On and from the main defense page we will discuss the double, the redouble and the overcalls.

If you expect to find here a extensive description, illustrated with examples, of the opening and the well known conventions, you probably will be disappointed. Sorry, this was all there is to say about 1NT.


If you want to see examples of bridgames in which the matter, treated in this section, is practiced you should click on examples and choose for the appropriate convention or for any typical opening bid.