Back to the 1NT Opener
Lee Prellwitz, an old friend, partner, and teammate from Wisconsin has won just about everything at the regional and sectional level. His other activities prevent him from hitting the NABC’s, but he is a fine player and analyst. He often watches hands on BBO’s vu-graph and sends entertaining and insightful commentary to his friends. He has an interesting observation for us to consider.
“…in watching the Spingold on Bridge Base, these guys opened one notrump every time they had the requisite number of high cards (and at least one high honor in one of the short suits.) I saw 6-3-2-2, 5-4-2-2, 4-4-4-1, and 5-4-3-1 all opened one notrump. And on the 5-4-2-2 hands even with the four card major, it was automatic. What is the logic behind this theory? The 4-4 fit major will still be discovered, and the defense will be made more difficult against three notrump with the unbalanced hand hidden, increasing the chances that the defense might get the distribution wrong and misanalyze how many tricks declarer has?
I don’t recall seeing any “wins” using this strategy, although I don’t know what “problems” were created for the defenders either. I did see some losses however. For example, Bart Bramley opened one notrump with a 1-4-3-5 pattern including the singleton ace of spades. His partner put him in four spades using Texas, with J109xxx, x, x, AJxxx. Bart failed by two, losing both red aces, the king and queen of spades, and a club ruff. The other table played five clubs losing only the red aces.
Comments on the advantages and disadvantages of this strategy.”
The intermediate range is difficult to show in a natural system. Most players have a well-documented structure after a NT opening, and more importantly, they usually get to play the hand!! My partnerships eschew the offbeat patterns for more descriptive auctions, and I confess that I view these openings as the refuge of lesser “experts.” I was therefore surprised to see that Lee spotted so many in the Spingold final.
I reviewed some hands and found a Rodwell 1NT opening consisting of 
3 2, 
7 2, 
A K J 2 , 
A K J 7 2. His RHO bid 2 with 6-4 in the majors, Eric bid 2NT and the opponents drove to 4 down one. It is not clear whether the 2 bid was the popular Multi bid (probable) or showed majors. You can see the entire hand by going to BBO, looking at vu-graph archives, 3rd quarter, Board 3.
Eric kindly responded to my email question about this hand. Here is what he said:
The 2D bid showed one long Major. However distasteful Edgar would find 1NT (and lots of other players, no doubt), it had the effect of preempting the opponents who guessed wrong about level. Also, following with 2N (minors) was almost a perfect description.
Thanks, Eric.
August 15, 2006 Jeff Miller
I always like to have another bid when I get competition over the NT open. Most of the time I don’t open off-shape NTs but I always seem to do it occasionally and for a variety of reasons usually related to the specific table situation. I think this is an action which doesn’t have a large percentage difference. Players with a lot of ‘feel’ tend to do things like this. Who knows what the results show about the merits of this strategy.
August 25, 2006 Phil Warden