Natural 1♠

The major suit openings show 12–17 points and 5+ cards. I separate them into two chapters due to subtle differences in their continuations.

  • Unpassed 1♠-1NT is forcing.
  • Maggie 1♠-2♣ is either a natural game force or a heart invitation.
  • I recommend Monolo raises instead of Bergen raises. Preemptive raise is not that useful since spades rank as the highest suit. Monolo was a bidding system developed by Fei Chen (Doizi). Monolo raises pack mini-SPL in 3♣♦, leaving mixed+ raises at 3♥♠.
1♠-12–17, 5+♠
1NTF, usually 7–11, 0–3♠
2♣!NAT FG or INV 5–6♥
2♦FG, 4+♦
2♥FG, 5+♥
2♠CONST, 3+♠
2NT!FG, 4+♠
3♣!INV or S/T, 4+♠, SPL ♦ or ♥
3♦!INV or S/T, 4+♠, SPL ♣
3♥!INV or S/T, 4+♠
3♠!CONST, 4+♠
3NT!Choice of games, 12–15, 33(43)
4X!FG SPL, 0–1#, 4+♠
4♠PRE, UNBAL 4+♠

Responding with 5+ hearts

  • Game-forcing: 2♥
  • Strong invitational 6+ hearts: 1NT and then 3♥
  • Invitational: 2♣
  • Constructive: 1NT and then 2♥

P-1♠

P-1♠ reduces to a fairly natural system. We can keep using Stenberg 2NT because it assigns minimum hands to 3♣.

P-1♠-12–17, 5+♠
1NTNF, usually 7–11, 0–3♠
2♣♦♥INV, 5+#
2NT!INV, 4+♠
3♣♦!INV, 5+#, 4+♠
3♥STR INV, 6+#