1NT Contracts

Computer dealt hands rarely give us easy hands to bid and play.

A close look at this weeks low level NT contracts show how opening 1NT or rebidding 1NT leaves you in an unmakeable contract.

Ideally you stay in NT if your best fits are 7 card suit(s).

But opt for a suit contract when there is a 4-4 fit.

Opening a 4 cd minor with the view to rebid 1NT better allows a 4-4 fit to be found.

It also allows opposition to bid a good 5 cd suit at the 1 level, thereby keeping you out of a doomed NT contract.

Advocates of opening 1NT say it is difficult for opposition to intervene at the 2 level with 4 cd suits. So as opponents we need good safe methods to overcome this.

Partnership that open 1NT also need methods to discover superior 4-4 fits.

Boards 2, 12, 17, 19, 21 from last Wednesday, show how few pairs got to the better suit contracts, sometimes failing to make 1NT.

Look up these hands on Compass Mate and see how you can overcome these issues.