Notrump Bidding Sequences

Fred E. Ferguson

Hilton Head Island, SC

Opening suit bids and rebids are natural when a suit bid shows length in a suit and a willingness to play in the suit bid. Opening notrump bids and rebids are natural when they show a balanced hand and a willingness to play in notrump.¹

Most bidding systems such as Standard American play opening notrump bids that allow the partnership to define the size of the notrump hand and show a willingness to play in notrump. For example, in SAYC an opening bid of 1Nt shows a balanced hand and 15 to 17 high card points (“hcp”); an opening bid of 2Nt shows a balanced hand and 20 to 21 hcp; and an opening bid of 3Nt shows a balanced hand and 25 to 27 hcp. Each of these bids also shows a willingness to play in notrump.

Most bidding agreements are subject to different usage and interpretations. While bidding notrump may be pretty standard, many modern bidding systems such as Two-Over-One Game Force may change notrump bidding sequences by first bidding 2♣ and then rebidding some level of notrump instead of bidding notrump directly. In addition, systems such as Precision, a “big club” system, will flip the meaning of certain notrump bidding sequences. It is imperative to discuss and have a partnership agreement on how you will play natural notrump bidding sequences.

Opening bids in notrump (1Nt, 2Nt or 3Nt) are special bids. The opening bid should give as much information as possible to partner about the strength and distribution of opener's hand. One of the best descriptive opening bids is the opening notrump bid. To understand the uniqueness of notrump it is important to first understand the concept of balanced and unbalanced hands.

Balanced Hand: A balanced hand does not have disproportional shortness and/or length in any suit. Shortness in a suit is considered to be a void (no cards in a suit), a singleton (1 card in a suit) or a doubleton (2 cards in a suit). A balanced hand, as used in notrump bidding, will have no voids, no singletons, and not more than one doubleton; and by inference this also means a balanced hand will not have a 6‑card suit and not more than one 5-card suit. Balanced hands will have a shape of 4-3-3-3 (square hand), 4-4-3-2 or 5-3-3-2. Any hand with a singleton or void is unbalanced!

Since notrump hands cannot trump in side suits, notrump contracts must guard against all suits. In addition, since a notrump hand has no trumping (ruffing) value, notrump hands require more strength (total points) to take the same number of tricks as a suit bid at the same level. To make game in a notrump contract (3Nt) requires the partnership to take 9 tricks and experience tells us that to fulfill this contract will require 25 to 26 combined points. The same number of points you can usually take 10 tricks in a suit contract.

Since a notrump contract requires more strength to take the same number of tricks it therefore takes more points to open in notrump than a suit contract. An opening 1Nt usually shows 15 to 17 hcp.

But what do you do if your hand does not fit within 15-17 or 20-21 or 25-27 hcp? Say you have 14 hcp or 19 hcp or 22 hcp and a balanced hand … what do you do now? Modern systems today incorporate additional notrump ranges to cover all level of notrump hands. A 12 to 14 point range, an 18 to 19 point range and a 22 to 24 point range. After an opening bid, a rebid of 1Nt shows 12 to 14 hcp and a jump to 2Nt to show 18 to 19 hcp. To show a 22 to 24 point hand you first open 2♣ and then rebid 2Nt. In addition to the points specified, each of these three bids also show a balanced hand and a willingness to play in notrump.

(Natural) Notrump Bidding Sequences

Opening Bid	Point Count
· Rebid of 1Nt	- 12 to 14 hcp
· 1Nt	- 15 to 17 hcp
· Jump to 2Nt	- 18 to 19 hcp
· 2Nt	- 20 to 21 hcp
· 2♣ and rebid 2Nt	- 22 to 24 hcp
· 3Nt (or 2♣ and rebid 3Nt)²	- 25 to 27 hcp (or shows 25+)

Remember Bridge should be fun!

See American Contract Bridge League (“ACBL”): Standard Yellow Card System Booklet, a.k.a. Standard American Yellow Card ("SAYC") http://www.acbl.org/documentlibrary/play/sayc_book.pdf , April, 2003 and Hardy: Standard Bridge Bidding for the 21^st Century (ISBN 1‑58776‑0495) pp. 16‑18. Thanks to my friend and partner Marty Nathan for his help and review of this document.

New Minor Forcing (NMF) 1 of 4 - Natural Notrump

¹ A notrump bid is conventional (i.e., not natural) when the bid has a defined meaning and is not intended as a willingness to play in notrump.

² The bid of 2♣ and rebid of 3Nt preserves the opening bid of 3Nt for conventional bids.

Fred E. Ferguson | fred@oneNT.com | 843.363.6416 | Hilton Head Island, SC