[gurgistan]

I will be playing a weak no trump 13-15hcp.

I have some notes which present a schema for how to respond to partner opening 1N.

However, it seems to me that the normal stuff played in SA and 2/1 should suffice (adapting for point count).

Hence:

Crawling Stayman
Garbage Stayman
4 Way Transfers
Smolen Transfers
Texas Transfers
Gerber

How common is this SA/2over1 treatment amongst Precision players?

[gwnn]

I think 12-14 and 14-16 are both better than 13-15.

[mtvesuvius]

There is one style advantage if you pass Balanced 11-12 HCP hands, then 1♦ is always unbalanced and 1N is 13-15. Otherwise I highly recommend you use a 14-16 NT.

[gwnn]

mtvesuvius, on 2011-February-12, 10:54, said:

There is one style advantage if you pass Balanced 11-12 HCP hands, then 1♦ is always unbalanced and 1N is 13-15. Otherwise I highly recommend you use a 14-16 NT.

well passing balanced 11-12 is a horrible style. I played 12-14 (with some upgrades) with 1♣ including balanced 15+, that was really nice to play.

[mtvesuvius]

Yes, I've played the 12-14 with a 15+ 1♣ quite a lot recently, it works quite nicely.

Passing the Balanced 11-12s is not a good style, and although it did work reasonably well when I played it, overall I think 14-16 is significantly better.

[gurgistan]

Why is 14-16hcp (or 12-14hcp) thought better than 13-15hcp for 1N?

Could someone please explain the reasoning?

[nigel_k]

The assumption is that you are happy with a three point range when showing a balanced hand, but not a four point range. Then you need two bids because 12-15 is too wide and those two bids will clearly be 1♦ and 1NT. If you assign a three point range to each you get 11-13 and 14-16. It also works well for the 1♣ opening to be 17+ if balanced since an unbalanced 16 and a balanced 17 are more equal in strength and now you have a 17-19 range for 1♣-1♦-1NT which allows you to stop at the one level with 19.

You could equally well play an 11-13 1NT opening and open 1♦ with 14-16, or maybe only do that non vul if you are nervous.

[Zelandakh]

The response scheme you suggest works fine over a weak NT. You do not need Smolen but it does not really hurt and it is good to play something with which you feel comfortable.

As for NT ranges I do not think it is losing bridge not to open balanced 11 counts but it probably is not to open most 12s and this is one reason why 13-15 has slipped out of favour. Another is the point that Nigel makes that a random 8 count is likely to make game opposite a balanced 17 or an unbalanced 16 making the lower boundary reasonably equivalent between hand types. As for fixing it there are a few options. The most common in modern precision is to open balanced 11-13 hands 1D. An alternative is to use a Polish-style approach with a weak (12-14) NT making the 1C opening on 15+ balanced hands. You then use an alternative route to show 18+ balanced hands, for example a Mexican 2D opening or utilising a 1H relay. All of these methods have pros and cons and all (including the 13-15 NT range) are used in high level competition.