Bidding and Playing 1NT in the Acol Bidding System

Hi everyone, North has passed, East has passed, and we are in the South seat with 13 high card points. That's enough to open 1NT when we're playing the Acol bidding system. That 1NT shows 12 to 14 points and a balanced hand. Balanced simply means a little bit of everything, so no void, so we've got at least some cards in every suit, no singleton, so we can't have a suit with only one card in it, and we shouldn't have a six card suit either.

This is a perfect for a 1NT opening bid and the five card minor, the diamond suit is absolutely fine so away we go.

That's the finish of the bidding. North has nine high card points. I've shown 12 to 14, North has nine, so North has calculated that we have somewhere between 21 and 23 high card points. Not enough for game, and so North has passed.

Often the right thing to do when we're playing in notrumps is to look for the suit we've got most of between the two hands, which in this case is diamonds. We've got eight diamonds between us so get stuck into the diamonds, which is what I'm going to do.

I'll win the ace of hearts and immediately play a diamond. Now I've lost to the ace but I had to lose to the ace of diamonds sometime anyway, but now the rest of my diamonds have all become winners. I've still got my honours and the side suits to regain the lead.

Now I can run those beautiful diamonds.

Right, we're up to six tricks. Outside the opposition have made one trick, so we only need one more trick, and I could grab that trick now by playing the ♣A or get a bit greedy and maybe set up a spade trick. I don't know yet, but it's a fun hand and a good one to study if you are learning how to play bridge. Don't be afraid to lose the lead if you can establish extra tricks.