May 2006 - 28

Art by Shane McDermott

Bidding Lab
Responding to 2NT
By Marshall Miles

Most systems of responses to 1NT
or 2NT furnish a lot of information
to the opponents. Suppose responder
bids Stayman, opener shows a major
and responder bids 3NT. The opening leader knows opener has the
major he has bid and responder has
the other major.
Also, later in the play, it is easier
for both defenders to discard when
they know that opener has, or
doesn't have, a specific four-card
suit.
Few players employ puppet Stayman over 1NT (for several good
reasons), but many players use it
over 2NT. Players open 2NT with
hands such as
A K Q 5 4 J 6 K Q 4 A Q 8
or
A J 10 A K 9 4 3 Q 10 A K J
(1) because game could be missed
by opening 1or 1 and (2) to be
declarer in the final contract, rather
than putting the strong hand down
as dummy.
Puppet Stayman allows opener
to bid a five-card major over a
Stayman response, but there are
problems when responder is 5-4 in
the majors.
When partner opens 1NT or 2NT
28

and you have 4-3-3-3 distribution,
no matter what your four- card suit
is, you should let partner play the
contract in notrump.
When responder has a five-card
major with 5-3-3-2 distribution, he
will usually gain a trick by playing
in the major if there is a 5-4 fit,
so he should use Stayman, but if
there is only a 5-3 fit, sometimes
the major plays a trick better and
sometimes it doesn't. I think the
"doesn't" is more frequent.
On the other hand, when responder has 5-4-4-0, 5-4-3-1 or
5-4-2-2 distribution, any eight-card
fit is likely to be worth an extra
trick. Responder shouldn't show
his five-card major with 5-3-3-2
distribution, so when he transfers to
a major and bids notrump opener
should choose the major-suit contract with three-card support.
These are my other recommendations after a 2NT opener: responder
should bid Stayman with 4-4-3-2
distribution, if one of the four-card
suits is a major. If he has two
four-card majors, he should bid
3NT! Opener can then bid four of a
major, knowing he will find at least
four-card support. Responder can
also bid Stayman with a three-card
holding in a major and a singleton,
or with a good three-card holding

and a worthless doubleton-a hand
that is likely to play better in a
major if partner has the right fivecard suit. Over 3, unless he has a
five-card major, opener automatically bids 3. Why tell the opponents
whether or not he has the other
four-card major? (He is willing to
show five because of the likelihood
that game in the major will be the
best contract). Then, as in standard
puppet Stayman, responder bids the
four-card major he does not hold.
Now, if opener bids 3NT he does
not say whether or not he has four
of the major bid by responder since
he knows responder doesn't have
both majors (with which he would
have responded 3NT (or 4NT or
5NT with both majors if he wanted
to invite or insist upon a slam).
If responder doesn't have both
majors and simply wants to raise
to 3NT, he bids 3 to transfer to
3NT. The 3 transfer can also be
used when responder has an interest
in a minor-suit slam. Over 3NT,
four of a major would be a splinter
bid showing both minors, while
a minor-suit bid at the four level
shows a single suiter, and opener
can make various rebids to show
how well he likes his hand in support of responder's minor(s).
Let's return to the 3NT response.
With 5-4 in the majors and 2-2 in
the minors, and with a fairly weak
five-card suit, responder should respond 3NT. That way, he won't miss
a 5-4 or 4-4 major fit. He could
miss out on a 5-3 major fit, which
may or may not be better than 3NT.
If he has 3-1 or 4-0 in the minors,
and possibly 2-2 if the five-card suit
is strong enough to play opposite a
doubleton, responder bids 3, then
4 over the 3 rebid to show five
hearts and four spades, and 4 to
shows five spades and four hearts.
When responder transfers to a
major and then bids a minor, he
shows at least five of the major and
four of the minor with slam interest.
The more distributional responder
is, the fewer high cards he needs to
show his two suits.
r
Bridge Bulletin
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2006
