November 2009 - 43

PLAY BRIDGE

Mike's Bridge Lesson
When should you use
Stayman?
This discussion leads off with an
opening lead question. What does
the question have to do with responding to Stayman? Watch.
Your right-hand opponent opens
1NT (15-17) and your LHO raises to
3NT. You hold:
Q 8 7 6 3 K 7 3 6 5 3 10 7.
What is your opening lead?
The world leads spades. You have
a suit you can hope to set up and you
have a possible entry in the K. If
you answered with anything other
than a spade, you started reading this
article from the end, not the beginning. Now a different auction.
West
North
East
South
1NT
Pass
2
Pass
2
Pass
3NT
All Pass
What is your opening lead now?
On the first auction, a spade lead was
automatic. On the second auction,
you know a lot more. What things do
you know now that you did not know
before?
1. You know that opener has four
hearts.
2. You know that responder has four
spades. Why would he ask for
a major when he does not have
one? A clever player might think
it cute to bid 2 when not holding a major but there are some
serious dangers to doing that. On
this auction, you can be pretty
sure dummy has a four-card major
which, in this case, can only be
spades.

November 2009

3. Opener does not have four spades.
If he did, he would be in 4 instead of 3NT.
4. Your partner did not double 2
for the lead. You have only five
HCP, so it is possible that your
partner has some points, and if he
had good clubs too, he might have
doubled 2.
Do you see why the question of
asking for a major is so far-reaching?
A real hand:
K 9 5 4 J 8 2 K Q 8 Q 9 6.
This is your hand, and your partner
opens 1NT. I suggest that with balanced shape, you should just raise to
3NT. You may miss a spade fit, but
you are 4-3-3-3, so finding a spade
fit may not be useful. There are many
cases in which notrump is superior
to playing in a 4-4 major suit fit, and
the tipoff is usually responder's balanced hand.
If, on this hand, you do bid 2,
your partner bids hearts and you go
on to 3NT. The opening leader has
the hand I showed you earlier and
now, having been warned that dummy
has four spades, he may choose another lead. The full deal:
K954
J82
KQ8
Q96
Q8763
J2
N
K73
Q94
W E
653
 J 10 9 7
S
 10 7
AJ43
 A 10
 A 10 6 5
A42
K852

Mike Lawrence

Declarer goes into this hand with
two spade winners, two heart winners eventually, three diamonds, and
a club. Declarer often ends up with
nine tricks on a deal like this, frequently because of a bad lead. If West
leads a spade, South has three spade
winners. If West leads a heart, that
most likely also gives up a trick. The
10 lead gives South a trick. Only a
diamond is safe.
I am not saying that a diamond is
always right, but there are inferences
that suggest diamonds are a consideration.
The point of this discussion is simple. When you have a balanced hand
with notrump values, raise your partner to 2NT or 3NT according to what
you have. Do not bid Stayman unless
you have a reason to think a major is
better than notrump. Any time you
bid Stayman, the opponents will learn
a lot, and that may be all they need to
defend better than they would if they
did not have the information you gave
away via Stayman.
This deal can be filed away under
the heading "something to think
about."
r
43
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2009
