Tuesday, September 16, 2003 1:49 AM

Balanced Hands - Majors

PITBULLS:

With the help of Stan Cabay , I have come to realize the main shortcoming of “Standard Edmonton” was the way we handled balanced hands. For some reason we always bid our 4 card major instead of bidding 1 or 2NT which described our distribution and HCP’s in one fell swoop. It is far more accurate bidding if we can describe a class of hands with a NT bid rather then muddy the waters and bid a major. We now have the extra very good inference that if we do bid a major , our minor is longer or else we would have rebid one or two NT .

Since we rebid NT with all balanced hands , how do we find our major fits? 2 way new minor forcing over a 1NT rebid to the rescue . You have AKxx xx KQxx J10x and open 1♦ . Partner responds 1♥ and you rebid 1NT . If partner has a game forcing hand , finding the 4-4 spade fit is trivial . Partner bids 2♦ forcing to game and you bid your spade suit or if partner was strong enough to reverse you find the spade fit that way.

With invitational hands , you find the 4-4 spade fit a different way . Responder shows you the 4 card spade suit rather than the other way around of asking you for it. This is the “Puppet” way of finding fits. Partner bids 2♣ and you relay to 2♦ . Partner now bids 2♠ which shows 4-4 in the majors and an invitational hand. You can escape to 2NT and play it there with no spade fit. 4-5’s are shown by reversing. A reverse is only forcing to 2NT as you bypass the 2♣ treatment with this specific distribution. Along with this treatment comes the necessity of responding a major after a club opening with hands under a game force. Bypass your diamond suit and respond a major so that you do not miss your major suit fit when partner may have a 1NT rebid.

Over a 2NT rebid , same “Puppet” idea to find your spade fit . You hold AQxx KJ10 Kx KQxx and open a club . Partner bids 1♥ and you rebid 2NT . How do you find your major fit ? Playing Wolff relays you bid 3♣ and partner relays to 3♦ . Partner now bids 3♠ to show 4-4 in the majors and the fit is found that way . Partner with 4-5 in the majors will bid naturally rather then going through the relay . The science of “puppet” bidding solves the problem of finding the spade fit. Checkback Stayman also solves the problem.

If you play “Puppet Stayman” this concept is not new to you . Responder shows the 4 card major after a relay rather then asking the opener for it as in Stayman.