Other responses to a 1 NoTrump opener

If partner opens 1NT and you hold only three cards or fewer in the major suits, there will not be eight cards in either major in the partnership's hands. Thus, unless you have one of the hands described in the previous lesson (weak with a long minor suit), you're probably playing the hand in a NT contract.

This is the simplest bidding to describe. You don't have to ask partner anything about her major suit lengths, so Stayman and Jacoby Transfers aren't necessary. Thus,

1. If you have less than game going points in the partnership's hands, you'll play in 1NT;
2. If you might have enough for game in the partnership's hands, you can invite game by bidding 2NT or,
3. If you have enough points for game in the partnership's hands, you bid 3NT.

Thus, you add your points to those of opener's (15-17) and see if you can make a game. If you hold 11-15 points, you bid 3NT. If you hold 9-10 (maybe 8 if you have good body cards: tens, nines, and eights), you bid 2NT inviting opener to bid game if she has 17 (or a good 16) points. If you hold 7 points or less (or a bad 8), we PASS partner's 1NT opener.

NT Slam Bidding

What if you hold a stronger hand? Suppose you hold 19 points yourself! Our partnership points add up to 34-36 points! This is enough for small slam (6NT), but not enough for grand slam (7NT). If the partnership can't hold eight cards in the major suits, then we should just bid 6NT (although some would go ahead and bid 4♣ - Gerber, described below, in case partner bid 1NT but didn't have the right number of points to do so. It's a safe thing to do and can't hurt).

What if you hold a hand that's not quite as strong? Suppose you hold 16 points. Opener's and your partnership points add up to 31-33 points which might be enough for slam! How do you ask partner if she holds a maximum NT hand? Well, there are two ways, really, depending on how certain you are about being able to keep the opponents from taking tricks in their suits.

Suppose partner opens 1NT and you hold one of the following hands:

♠A87  ♥A42  ♦A532  ♣AT9 - Hand A

With hand A, it's pretty obvious that you can take a trick in any suit that the opponents lead whenever you want: you have all the aces so you hold stoppers in all of the suits. You don't care if opener can stop the suits: you already know. What you do need to know is how many points opener has. If opener has 17, you want her to bid 6NT. If she has 15, you want her to PASS. If she has 16, we want her to try to make the best decision. You do this by bidding 4NT (called a quantitative invitation to slam, since you're asking about what quantity of points opener has).

After partner opens 2NT, a jump to 4NT asks partner if she holds 22 (or a good 21) points and says that you know you have all suits stopped.

However, Hand B below has a different problem after partner opens 1NT. You have

♠AK7  ♥KQ7  ♦Q76  ♣AT93 - Hand B

aces in spades and clubs, so those suits are stopped. You have the KQ of hearts, so you're sure to be able to take a trick in that suit, even if one of our honors loses to the Heart Ace. However, you don't know if partner can stop diamonds. However, you do know we have enough points for a small slam. How do we ask opener about her stoppers? By using a convention called Gerber - a 4♣ bid. This asks partner "How many aces do you hold?" Partner responds by counting her aces and then telling you in increments:

4♦ -	shows zero aces or four aces [usually it is easy to tell which],
4♥-	one aces,
4♠ -	two aces,
4NT -	three aces,

Once you know how many aces partner holds, you can make the best judgment on how high to play the hand (you already know you're playing in NT .)

Why do you go to the trouble of asking? Good question! Hand B holds 18 points, so even if partner holds 15 points, you have enough points for a small slam: you total 33 points. That leaves your opponents with 7 points. It's possible that these 7 points are the A and K in the same suit, which you can't stop from taking tricks. Thus, you need to know if partner has stoppers: not points.

This is a very important point. If you're not sure the partnership has enough points to bid a small slam, do NOT use Gerber. Gerber should be used only when you're checking to make sure that all of the suits are stopped. (Also, do not bid the quantitative 4NT bid if you're not SURE that every suit is stopped.) Thus, if the bidding goes:

Opener	You
1NT	4♣
4♥	?

and you hold Hand B (♠AK7  ♥KQ7  ♦Q76  ♣AT93), you know the partnership is short one of the aces, but DON'T know which one is missing. To be safe, you'll bid 4NT. If you bid 6NT, you're gambling that partner holds either the ♦A or the ♦K (which with your ♦Q will make a stopper in ♦). It's best not to gamble away a certain game for a slam which might fail.

Invitational Hands With Minor Suits

If partner opens 1NT and you hold invitational points (meaning game might be reached, so you have to hold at least 9 but can't hold 11: 9-10 points), you can invite your partner to bid game with a 2NT bid. If you hold a long, decent minor suit and opener holds three or more of them with an honor, you might be able to take a lot of tricks in that suit. This means that you might not need 26 points to make the game - maybe 24 will do. For example,

you hold:	♠QJT	♥73	♦KJ9853	♣Q7
and opener holds:	♠K7	♥AK64	♦AT4	♣JT92

You might be able to take six diamond tricks (if you can keep the ♦Q from winning a trick). With the ♥AK, that's eight tricks. The cards you hold in the other suits will stop your opponents from taking too many tricks in those suits.

Thus, it's your long diamond suit which makes game possible. How do you tell partner this: invitational points and a decent six-card or longer minor suit? You bid 3 of that suit! Thus, after opener bids 1NT, you'd respond 3♦.

NOTE:As a reminder, if you hold six cards in a major suit, you should do a Jacoby Transfer to that suit, then raise the suit to 3 to tell partner about your six card suit and invitational points. Since major suits score games at the four-level (4♥or 4♠), it's worth trying to bid them when the points and suits exist. With minor suits, you'd need to bid to the 5-level to score a game which requires more points. Thus, a partnership's hands which might play a bit better in a minor suit partscore (and take ten tricks: 4♦ or 4♣) might be able to take nine tricks at NoTrump and score a game that way.

What do we mean by a "decent" suit? Well, usually you hold enough honors in the suit that one honor from opener will make the suit worth at least five tricks (losing one to an opponent's honor) or six tricks if you can stop the opponents from taking tricks in this suit. That usually means that you hold two of the top four honors in the suit (that is two from the A, K, Q, or J) and good body cards (the T or 9 are very good cards to hold).

Summary of Responding to NT Openers

Thus, to summarize all of our responses to a 1NT opener, we have:

Opener	You	Meaning
1N	PASS	8 or fewer points and no long minor suit
	2♣	Stayman: "do you have a four card major suit? I'll tell you about how many points I have on my next bid."
	2♦	Jacoby Transfer: "I have five hearts: please bid 2♥. I'll tell you about how many points I have on my next bid."
	2♥	Jacoby Transfer: "I have five spades: please bid 2♠. I'll tell you about how many points I have on my next bid."
	2♠	Transfer to 3♣: "I have a very weak hand with either long clubs or long diamonds."
	2NT	Invitation to NT game and no interest in a major suit contract.
	3♣	Invitation to NT game and a six card club suit.
	3♦	Invitation to NT game and a six card diamond suit.
	3♥	Six hearts and slam interest.
	3♠	Six spades and slam interest.
	3NT	Game going values and no interest in a major suit game.
	4♣	Gerber "how many aces do you have?"
	4NT	Quantitative invitation to NT slam: "We have all suits stopped, but do you have enough points for a small slam?"
	6NT	"We have enough points for small slam and I don't have any interest in a major suit small slam."
	7NT	"We have enough points for grand slam and I don't have any interest in a major suit grand slam."

Similarly, after partner opens 2NT, we have the similar responses:

Opener	You	Meaning
2NT	3♣	Stayman.
	3♦	Jacoby Transfer to hearts.
	3♥	Jacoby Transfer to spades.
	3NT	Enough for NT game and no interest in a major suit game.
	4♣	Gerber, asking for aces.
	4NT	Quantitative invitation to NT slam.
	6NT	Enough for NT small slam and no interest in a major suit small slam.
	7NT	Enough for NT grand slam and no interest in a major suit grand slam.

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