You and your partner have agreed to a 15-17 1NT range. Here are 3 hands that you might upgrade to a 1NT opening (maybe you'll find 1NT on Hand 3 a little too exciting, but run with it for the moment). Assume that you're in 1st seat, none vuln, matchpoints.

Hand 1: 14 HCP, but heavy with aces, kings, and good spots

Hand 2: 14 HCP with a strong 5-card suit

Hand 3: 13 HCP with a nice 6-card suit

1) If you and your partner agree to open 1NT with Hand 1 and Hand 2, but not Hand 3, what do you announce?

In this case, saying "A good 14 to 17" seems very reasonable. Would you feel damaged if your opponents said "15 to 17"?

2) If you and your partner agree to open 1NT with Hand 2, but not Hand 1 or Hand 3, what do you announce?

In this case, I'm worried that the opponents will expect more 14s than I actually open if I say "A good 14 to 17". This is my current style, and I currently announce "15 to 17". This style upgrades for length in decent suits, without giving too much weight to "HCP quality".

3) If you and your partner agree to open 1NT with Hand 2 and Hand 3, but not Hand 1, what do you announce?

In this style, this hand is just shy of opening 1C and rebidding 3C.

If you say "15 to 17" and you show up with Hand 3, it seems to me that your opponents would be rightly surprised. If you say "A good 14 to 17", I imagine they would still be surprised. If you said "A good 13 to 17", they would reasonably expect some average 14s. Putting aside that you might find this style inconsistent (if you'd open Hand 1 as well), how do you describe this in a succinct and unsurprising way?

Similarly to Style 2, this style upgrades for length, but doesn't draw the line at just 5-card suits.

Let me know if I can clarify these styles further. For each style I want to find out:

- What's an appropriate announcement?

- How damaged would you feel if your opponents just said "15 to 17"?