Sunday, February 23, 2003
12:50 AM
Hand Evaluation – NT ( Re-Stayman )
PITBULLS:
Playing 4 way transfers , 2♠ is already defined to show all ♣ hands. Therefore you no longer have
minor suit Stayman bid available ,
a necessary systemic bid in my opinion. Re-Stayman replaces minor suit Stayman. A 1NT opener is supposed to be a balanced hand . There are only three patterns
that fit that criteria . 4-4-3-2 , 4-3-3-3 and 5-3-3-2
unless you are taking some terrorist action . Playing 4 way transfers
, you have a very useful idle bid . You do not need a club bid after Stayman
anymore to show a weak club hand nor do you need it to show a strong club hand . 5-4-3-1 hands with 5 clubs are also described with
other systemic bids . You can define 3♣ as a minor suit Stayman
or “re-Stayman” with the purpose of getting to a slam
or the correct game. This bid also has the dual
use to find out when
partner opened 1NT on a 5 card major . This
bid is puppet Stayman
& minor suit Stayman all rolled into one bid !! For those who only play
Puppet Stayman after a 2NT opener , you also need this bid to find awkward to bid
minor fits .
You have this hand ♠xx ♥xx ♦AKxxx ♣AQJx and partner opens 1NT . With
the appropriate hand , we have a minor suit slam . Let’s
put our distribution asking re-Stayman to work . The fact that Stayman
is used first & partner denies a major or
bids a major before the 3♣ bid is made makes pin pointing the
suits easy. You are putting the Stayman bid to work for you
as you build on the information to find out the exact distribution of the 1NT opener. Since My partners & I play
Stayman extensions that 2NT & 3♣
show 4-4 in the majors , this major suit combination cannot exist with the re-Stayman bid. Therefore , there are
only 3 cases that Re-Stayman applies.
Case I Where partner does not have a major
so bids 2♦. You have bid 2♣ , partner bids 2♦, so let’s bid 3♣ to find out her distribution
. It can only be the 3 patterns above , so it is not
hard to agree to bids to describe these. Lets define 3♦ to show the 3-2-4-4 distribution with 4-4 in the minors. O.K. that takes care of
that hand pattern . She could have opened 1NT with a 5
card minor so let’s define 3♥ to show the lower ranking 5 card
minor and 3♠ to show the higher ranking 5 card minor after your 3♣ inquiry . O.K. that gets rid of the 5-3-3-2 pattern .
Only 1 pattern left and that is the ugly 4-3-3-3
distribution . Lets define a 3NT response to 3♣
for that pattern .
Case II When partner responds a major ( hearts ) to your Stayman ,
you can still ask for her pattern . Bid 3♣ ,
when she opened 1NT with a 5
card heart suit she rebids it . This is the puppet Stayman
part of this bid . After your 3♣ inquiry , 3♦ says she has a 4 card diamond suit
with her 4 hearts & 3♠ ( other major) shows the club suit ( black ) with the 4 hearts. 3NT directly over 3♣ would
show the 4-3-3-3 hand . Again all three distributions covered. Diamonds are always natural
with Re-Stayman.
Case III Finally when partner responds spades to your Stayman , 3♣ can still
ask for the various distributions so with the boss suit you can pin point the minors right away . Partner bids spades again with 5 of
them, 3♦ with a 4 card diamond suit
& the other major 3♥ with a 4 card club suit . Diamonds are always
natural with these major sequences. 3NT after 3♣ would show the ugly 4-3-3-3 . Again all distributions covered.
Once a minor fit is found , 4 of the
minor is KCB by either partner and setting that suit as trumps. When no fit
is found we play 3NT , when a fit is found we are off
to the races. This is not as complicated as it seems .
It fits right in with 4 way transfers . It is the only complete pattern asking bid in Bridge that I know about anyway. The bid makes minor suit toys like
2♠ minor suit Stayman and puppet Stayman
extinct .
Tom and I had a sequence where this tool would be very helpful.
I held ♠AJ87 ♥Jxx ♦KQ10x ♣Ax , Tom opened 1NT . I bid Stayman so he replied 2♦. I do not like our chances in 6NT as I only held 15 HCP. However, I had a lot of controls with a doubleton club , so
a minor suit slam might be a possibility.
The 3♣ pattern asking bid should
find our minor fit when we have one. I
bid 3♣ , Tom bids 3♠ which shows a 5 card diamond
suit after denying a major in the first instance ! I have struck gold but I can
not bid 4♦ as that is KCB and I do not have a heart control. Any bid other
then 3NT implies diamonds so I bid 4♣ which is a club control
. Tom replies with 4♥ so with my spade ace & good trump I leap to 6♦ . With a non club lead this in an excellent slam (
Tom held Qx of clubs ) . The spades behave so
a club gets discarded on the 4th spade ,
you just concede the heart king so the jack of hearts is your 12 th trick .
Tom & I had another sequence
recently that brings in understandings after you use the 3♣ inquiry. I
held ♠QJx ♥AJ10 ♦1098 ♣AQJx & opened 1NT. Tom bid Stayman & after my 2♦ reply , he asked for my
distribution. I bid 3NT which shows the 4-3-3-3 with an undisclosed 4 card
minor. Tom continued with 4♣ so I can show a 4 card diamond suit by
bidding 4♦ , I can show a maximum with
clubs by Q bidding & bid 4NT with a minimum . Tom held ♠Ax ♥xx ♦AKxx ♣K1098x so if I had a maximum like ♠KQx
♥Axx ♦Qxx ♣AQxx , we are cold for a grand in clubs. However with my minimum 15 HCP , QJx in the major, I bid 4NT so that’s where we play it for 660.
Tom and I had an auction where we got
to a 75% vulnerable slam with the “puppet Stayman”
part of the tool. I held ♠Q98 ♥KQxx ♦AQ1098 ♣x and Tom opened
1NT . I bid Stayman , Tom bid 2♠ so I
decided to “re-Stayman” the hand . I bid 3♣ , LHO doubled & Tom bid 3♠ to show the 5 card suit !! Aided by the opponent who doubled my singleton , I bid
Blackwood . Tom had ♠AJ10xx ♥Ax ♦Jxx ♣Axx so it’s a two finesse grand or a 75% small. A victory for the system
to “check back” to find out if he
had a 5 card major suit !!
This bid should not be
used as a passed hand . I open 1NT with ♠AQx
♥A109x ♦xx ♣AQxx , Tom as a passed hand bids
2♣ . I bid 2♥, Tom bids 3♣ which we play the old fashioned way. Tom &
I reached 5♣ where 3NT was off the entire ♦ suit.
Anyway ,
the 1NT bid is the corner stone
of your bidding system . You should have a tool
that identifies a 5 card minor or major in partners hand & also allows
you to find
a 4-4 minor fit.
The repeated Stayman bid is the tool to do this . All established
partnerships should have a
variation of this bid .
Might be a high learning curve at first but with
practice it is very logical. Stan Cabay & Maurice have their own scheme , which is different from the above , but it works so
they find their minor fits.