Treasure Mine - Systems & Style - Chapter 0 - 1NT with less than 11

The recent world championship gives us a treasure trove that can be examined to study systems and style implications for success. For this short chapter of the study we will look at when 1NT was opened with less than 11. The reason why this is chapter 0 is that it occurred too few times.

Five pairs with at least average Butlers (scoring compared to rest of field) were using 1NT that could be less than 11 - in the order found in the round robin Butlers:

1) Roumen TRENDAFILOV - Kalin KARAIVANOV - Bulgaria - NV vs. V 1/2: 9-12
2) Zvi ENGEL - Bernard DEHAYE - Belgium - NV 1/2: 9-11
3) Slawek ZAWISLAK - Boguslaw PAZUR - Poland - NV: 10+-13
4) Lauri NABER - Leo LUKS - Estonia - NV: 10.5-13
5) Sverrir ARMANNSSON - Adalsteinn JORGENSEN - Iceland - NV: 10-12

From the Vugraph records there were only two hands. First, from the round robin Bulgaria vs. Chinese Taipei:

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North doubled to show values, and it appears South bid 2C as a general run-out, while North took it as natural and weak. That was -200 while NS in the Open Room were collecting +50 against 3S.

In the last segment of the quarterfinals, in Italy against Poland, the Closed Room NS had a four bid sequence to 4S - with trumps 2-2 and hearts 4-2, that was making six:

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In the Open Room the 1NT opening started North off with a double to show values:

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Redouble showed clubs, or diamonds & a major, and EW found the club fit. South simply jumped to 3S to force and reached 4S.

There are too few hands to do an analysis here, but here are the findings from previous events:

- opening 10 (or 9) balanced does not generate much IMPs against world class opponents (see the second board above) - since opening 10 balanced forces system adjustments elsewhere (to handle balanced hands 10 upwards), you might as well pass them

- opening 10 balanced does generate IMPs against weaker and/or unprepared opponents (see the first board above), but you don't need to open 1NT to generate the IMPs - it can be anything - generally you want to open the bidding as much as possible against opponents who are not very good and not very bad - for very bad opponents, passing works since they will often bid themselves to the wrong spot.