[pescetom]

I am working on a document to put 1NT opening in perspective for our regional TDs.
I know our national regulations intimately and find the EBU regulations clear, but ACBL is more of a mystery and its web site does not help.
I found the convention charts which clarified which NT agreements are legal at Basic/Open levels (essentially at least 10 HCP minimum and at most 5 HCP range) but unless I missed something say nothing about which deviations are disallowed / allowed and psychic / allowed and non-psychic.
How is it considered if we document 15-17 and intentionally deviate with 14 or 18, or with 12 or 21?

[johnu]

Some key points in the ACBL convention chart PDF are:

Definition of natural:
A NT opening bid that contains no voids, no more than one singleton, which must be an ace, king, or queen, and that does not contain 10 or more cards in two suits combined.

Examples: Definitions
“Psych”: Generally, 2 cards fewer or an Ace weaker than the minimum expected for a
bid would meet the definition of a Psych, as would an Ace stronger than the maximum
expected.

So for a 15-17 NT, opening with 11 or less or 21 and more is a psych (an ace weaker than 15 or an ace stronger than 17). Smaller variations are deviations, not psyches, but "frequent" deviations mean your 15-17 is not actually 15-17 so there's a potential problem with misinformation, or with playing an illegal 1NT opening.

[barmar]

I don't know where, or even if, it's written, but ACBL has long had a policy that you can't agree to upgrade at all at the bottom end of a 10-12 NT. Opening any 9 count is considered a psyche.

If you regularly upgrade 14 counts you should announce "good 14 to 17".

[jillybean]

I am just curious to know why you are interested in ACBL regs when you are Directing in Italy?

[blackshoe]

barmar, on 2025-December-11, 12:41, said:

I don't know where, or even if, it's written, but ACBL has long had a policy that you can't agree to upgrade at all at the bottom end of a 10-12 NT. Opening any 9 count is considered a psyche.

If you regularly upgrade 14 counts you should announce "good 14 to 17".

The Convention Charts, under "Examples" have 3. [Restriction 4] Hands with 9 or fewer HCPs cannot be upgraded into any NT range. This does not apply to a psych. To be considered a psych, the hand must contain at least 4 HCP less the minimum.
IMO that last clause is poorly worded. I'm sure what they mean is "the hand must contain at most the minimum agreed count minus 4 HCP". So if your agreement is 15-17, opening 1NT with 11 HCP is a psych. If your agreement is "good 14 to 17" opening with 11 HCP is illegal. If your agreement is 10-12, any value between 7 and 9 is illegal, while opening with 6 is a psych.

Note that this example does not address the question of a psych of 1NT on the basis of shape. They could well use an example of that, IMO.

[pescetom]

jillybean, on 2025-December-11, 13:22, said:

I am just curious to know why you are interested in ACBL regs when you are Directing in Italy?

Because I am trying to put our own regs (unusually restrictive in some respects, unusually permissive in others) in an international perspective.
ACBL is currently 11 times bigger than FIGB, after all.
And perhaps to help explain why I say such strange things

[pescetom]

blackshoe, on 2025-December-11, 15:18, said:

The Convention Charts, under "Examples" have 3. [Restriction 4] Hands with 9 or fewer HCPs cannot be upgraded into any NT range. This does not apply to a psych. To be considered a psych, the hand must contain at least 4 HCP less the minimum.
IMO that last clause is poorly worded. I'm sure what they mean is "the hand must contain at most the minimum agreed count minus 4 HCP". So if your agreement is 15-17, opening 1NT with 11 HCP is a psych. If your agreement is "good 14 to 17" opening with 11 HCP is illegal. If your agreement is 10-12, any value between 7 and 9 is illegal, while opening with 6 is a psych.

Thanks, this is the kind of detail I was looking for.

blackshoe, on 2025-December-11, 15:18, said:

So if your agreement is 15-17, opening 1NT with 11 HCP is a psych.

Understood. Opening 1NT with 21 too, I imagine.

blackshoe, on 2025-December-11, 15:18, said:

If your agreement is 10-12, any value between 7 and 9 is illegal, while opening with 6 is a psych.

Understood.

blackshoe, on 2025-December-11, 15:18, said:

If your agreement is "good 14 to 17" opening with 11 HCP is illegal.

Struggling with this one. I can see that it is not extreme enough to qualify as a psyche, but why/where illegal?

[mycroft]

That last is arguable (especially for those of us who want to remind folks that that word "generally" actually is in the example - in fact, the first word of it), but the quote on the Open/+ Charts is (my emphasis):

"If an Agreement would be disallowed unless it satisfies a specific High Card Point or shape requirement, a player may not use judgment to include hands with fewer High Card Points or a different shape."

And the Basic/+ charts has an equivalent sentence, changed because of the "agreements are allowed if" nature of those charts (rather than "allowed unless").

If a deviation is not gross, then it is not a Psych by definition. "Generally", 3 HCP deviations are not considered gross. Minor deviations are "judgement", and said deviations that would be disallowed if they were actually the pair's agreement are not allowed.

As for "arguable", it is my frequently posted opinion that a variation that is the *entire size of the agreed range* of a call isn't minor (while still pointing to the places on the Alert Procedures where they totally ignore the word "Generally" to make it clear that my opinion is, at best, controversial). But were I to be in this situation, that would be the case that I made that this is clearly not just a "deviation" - and unless I was one of the "so, more or less than half the 13s?" 14-16 NT players, I would expect that my case would be heard - even if rejected.

And the final piece of the puzzle here is that "if it's not a Psych, then your agreement (counting valid 'judgement') is actually '11-17', and that exceeds the allowed 5 HCP Range."

[barmar]

blackshoe, on 2025-December-11, 15:18, said:

The Convention Charts, under "Examples" have 3. [Restriction 4] Hands with 9 or fewer HCPs cannot be upgraded into any NT range. This does not apply to a psych. To be considered a psych, the hand must contain at least 4 HCP less the minimum.
IMO that last clause is poorly worded. I'm sure what they mean is "the hand must contain at most the minimum agreed count minus 4 HCP".

I think it's just a typo, and they meant "less than the minimum".

Then they copy-pasted the typo to Restriction 5 as well.