This auction came up earlier today and led to some discussion, including what Mike Lawrence says (or at one time said, these things change). Here is what ML has to say in
The Complete Book on Balancing. I will put what I think is the most important part in italics.
Everything in quotes is from the ML book
"
What should 1NT show? If you asked ten good players you might find less agreement than you expected, and if you asked ten inexperienced players the discrepancy could be eave greater."
After a bit more general philosophy we find:
"So what should the lower range be? I would say your lower range is something like a good 11.
Now comes the tricky part. Your upper range is about 14 points if you are re-opening after one club or one diamond, but it is about 16 after one heart or one spade."
This is pretty much what I use in my f2f partnership with a friend. But please note the italicized part. Views vary, as we saw in the discussion. Partner and I were fill-ins for today's game, we had discussed nothing but the most basics: 2/1, 1430, standard carding, natural overcalls if they open 1NT.
In the case today, I was second hand, my Rho opened 1
, I had a ten count that included five hearts to the JT, not something I wanted to overcall with, so it went
1
- Pass - Pass -1NT
Pass
and now I had to find a call. I decided on 2NT, which was passed out. There are 9 fairly clear tricks in NT, partner took 10 tricks, and 4
has a decent play. The 1
opening makes the play easier.
But: It is pointless to say who should have done what differently. If a pair plans to play together regularly, they should decide on a range. It doesn't matter if it's the range i prefer, it should be the range that they both agree to. In a pick-up partnership, there will be such misunderstandings. Guaranteed. So we just relax when it happens
Oh. And with my f2 f partner we agree that after a balancing 1NT, Stayman and transfers are on. One could do better, since if the auction begins 1
- Pass - Pass - 1NT it makes no sense that then, after the 1
opener passes, a 2
bid by partner is a transfer to hearts. So one could choose a different use for 2
. {Added: Since the 1NT balance has a pretty broad range after the 1
opening, it might be useful to use both 2
and 2
as a transfer to spades, but with differing strengths. That's just me, not ML as far as I know. But that's not frequent enough to worry about. ]
A sample hand from ML:
1
- Pass - Pass
Both vul
K3
T65
KJ87
AJ54
ML says this is a minimal had for the 1NT balance. The essential thing is to have a discussion or an agreed upon reference or something.
As mentioned, I go along with this ML approach but no doubt other authors have other approaches
