Sunday, March 23, 2003 1:55 AM

Stayman Treatments

 

PITBULLS:

 

         Stayman is a very necessary Bridge convention but it does have some flaws . Slam bidding is very clumsy after you have found a major fit and a 2♥ response might have 4 spades also . This scenario can be vastly improved by a tweak to Stayman . Tom G and Lee Barton recommend adding a 2NT response and a  3♣ response to Stayman to show both majors . This opens up a lot of other possibilities that assist in major suit slam tries after Stayman .

 

          Playing rubber bridge with a stranger and the auction goes

 

 

 

 

 

1NT

 

2♣

 

2♥

 

2♠

 

?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Is this 4 spades with 2NT invitational strength ?  Is this a Q bid showing hearts ? Is it even natural ?  Your guess is as good as mine . The 2NT response & 3♣ response showing both majors simplifies these auctions . 2 spades can not be natural

( partner denied spades ) so its actually an idle bid . You know that the best action with an idle bid is to make it a slam try or optionally a relay.

 

 

          Most Edmonton experts play the other major after Stayman to be an artificial slam try saying nothing about the major bid. This is because Stayman does not have any built in slam tries.

  

          What about if partner responds 2♠ to Stayman and you bid hearts ? It can not be natural as you want to preserve all the other bids as natural and partner has denied hearts already ( did not use the Stayman extension to show both majors ) . The minor bids are natural and shows 4♥’s and that minor unless you have other understandings . The 3♣ as a re-Stayman for example .  3♥ therefore is artificial , implies spades and is a slam try. Stan Cabay has a relay invented here also which gets away from the 3♥ artificial bid . There is room for improvement in this sequence also .

 

          Tom says if you play a 2NT response to Stayman as both majors you should preserve the transfer. 3♦ and 3♥ are transfer back to the major . Game will be bid or a slam try will be attempted .

 

          5-5 in the majors needs partnership understanding after a NT bid. A treatment I prefer is game forcing 5-5’s I use transfers into the higher ranking suit and then bidding the lower ranking suit. What about the weak 5-5 in the majors ? I prefer to use Stayman and of course pass tow of the major if partner bids it. What if she bids 2♦ ? I now bid 2♥ and partner can scramble into 2♠ if she wishes. If I am not 5-5 , at worst the fit is a Moysean with 5-4 in the majors in partners hand.

 

          Having these understandings over 2NT do not hurt either unless you play puppet Syayman . 3NT rebid to show both majors and transferring back is harmless. 3♠ over a 3♥ response is still a relay to 3NT and implies hearts . Not relaying are natural sequences . Alvin gave me this hand which he held playing rubber bridge with Hoy .

 

v

K

K

K

o

J

x

J

i

10

x

10

d

x

 

9

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

x

 

 

 

 

      Partner opens 2NT and you tempted not even to bid Stayman with the nice club suit . Alvin tried Stayman and Hoy responded 3♥ !  Now what ? 4♣ in rubber  Bridge is forcing but does not imply hearts . The Pitbulls would leap to 5♠ which is  exclusion Blackwood for hearts . This brings 3 Aces outside the spade suit and a subsequent inquiry finds out that partner has the heart Q . 7♥ is confidently bid with the exclusion tool and it is cold.  If partner had really severe duplication of value in spades , 6♥ might not make but 7♥ is cold . If you play 3♠ as a relay to 3NT you have a good chance to Q bid yourself to 7 as partner held the perfect cards and the opponents held the spade cards .  Alvin had none of these tools but as a gambler he put the contract in a hoyible 7 contract which turned out to be an excellent contract . Ah , the color of money J