Saturday, September 09, 2006 10:22 PM

6-4's Majors

PITBULLS:

6-4 in the majors come up quite often after partner opens 1NT or 2NT. How does your system handle these hand types ? Standard bidding says to bid Stayman and if you get a 2♦ reply, you leap to your 6 card major. Very simple. Sometimes if partner responds spades to your Stayman , it is still a good idea to leap to 4♥ to show your hand for a spade slam try. You do not use transfers with 6-4’s in standard bidding.

For those partnerships who have bought into the 2 level Smolen theory , 6-4’s are shown by transfers. If you are weak but enough for a shot at game , you ignore Stayman or transfers & just make a Texas transfer in your six card suit. If you have 6♥ & 4♠ or 6♠ & 4♥ with a good hand , you start with a heart transfer regardless of your 6-4. Partner bids 2♥ as ordered so you bid the 2♠ relay to 2NT , If you now leap to 4♥ , you show 4♠ and 6♥ with a slam try. The NT opener plays the more frequent contract . If you leap to 4♣/♦ you show 6♠-4♥ and a stiff/void in that suit. It is in eerie feeling transferring into hearts with your 6 card spade suit J.

Maurice & Susan had a standard 6-4 situation recently. Here is how BJ & I would have bid it with our “Smolen” system. Susan held ♠AQxxxx ♥A109x ♦void ♣10xx and Maurice opened 1NT. In our system we bid 2♦ transferring to hearts. We now bid 2♠ which is a relay to 2NT . We now leap to 4♦ which shows a void or singleton diamond and specifically 6♠ & 4♥ . Partner has 4♥ and no duplication of value in diamonds so 6♥ is an easy bid and its about a 80% slam. Double dummy it is a 100 % slam.

How does Puppet Stayman handle the 6-4’s in the majors ? These hands fall into the Stayman category. You start off with Stayman and partner bids 3NT so you just bail to your 6 card major. Rather simple. What if partner bids 3♦ ? You now know you have a fit , but its best to tell partner that you have a 6-4 . Here is how it is done via a 4♣ bid ( 4♦ only shows 4-4 in majors) :

4♣ shows 5-4 or 6-4 in the majors, slam try

4♦ asks via smolen style

4♥ is long spades

4nt is keycard for hearts

5♣ is key card for spades

4♠ is long hearts

4nt is keycard for hearts

5♣ is key card for spades

Here is a hand from a Spingold where it is easy to get to 7♠ using Puppet Stayman.

♠ AKQx ♥ KQx ♦Axx ♣AJx opposite ♠Jxxx ♥ AJxxxx ♦void ♣ xxx

2♣-P-2♦-P

2NT-P-3♣(1) (1) Puppet Stayman

3♦(2)-P-4♣(3) (2) One or two majors

4♦(4)-P-4♠(5) (3) 6-4 slam try

5♣(6)-P-5♦(7) (4) Describe Smolen style plse

7♠(8) (5) I have 6 hearts

(6) KCB spades agreed

(7) I have one Ace

(8) As you are at least 4-6-2-1 , I can count 13 tricks (ruff in your hand)