The Perfect Start To An Auction
1NT is a great opening bid. You quickly describe the strength and shape of your hand leaving partner in a good position to decide how high to bid. A 1NT opening needs to be balanced. 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.
1NT Opening
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.
This is a perfect for a 1NT opening bid and the five card minor, the diamond suit is absolutely fine so away we go.
Responder Can Often Decide The Final Contract
That's the finish of the bidding. North has nine high card points. I've shown 12 to 14 so North has calculated that we have somewhere between 21 and 23 high card points. Not enough for game, and so North has passed.
Playing As Declarer In 1NT
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.
Win the ace of hearts and immediately play a diamond. It'll lose to the ace but we had to lose to the ace of diamonds sometime anyway, but now the rest of my diamonds have all become winners and we've still got my honours and the side suits to regain the lead. Now we can play all those beautiful diamonds. The ♣A will be our 7th trick.
Don't Be Afraid To Lose The Lead
When you are learning how to play bridge it can be tempting to grab every winner as fast as possible. Don't be afraid to lose the lead if you can establish extra tricks.