Conventions: More on Simple Stayman – Part II

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March 31, 2015

Source: http://www.abfevents.com.au/youth/bulletins/

Read More on Simple Stayman – Part 1

In Part I, a suggestion was made on how to handle quantitative bids and suit setting bids after a Simple Stayman auction, as below:

1NT 2club (Simple Stayman)
2heart 3 minor 5+m, 4spade, Game-force
3spade Artificial, sets hearts as trumps
4club/4diamond Splinter
4NT Quantitative
1NT 2club (Simple Stayman)
2spade 3 minor 5+m, 4heart, Game-force
3heart Artificial, sets spades as trumps
4club/4diamond/4heart Splinter
4NT Quantitative

A slightly different variation of this (AKA “Baze”) can be played that will allow you to keep all of the splinters, but requires a bit of artificiality:

1NT 2club (Simple Stayman)
2heart 3 minor 5+m, 4spade, Game-force
3spade Artificial,  an unknown splinter raise in hearts
4club Artificial, sets hearts, slam try (usually balanced)
4diamond Artificial, RKCB in hearts
4NT Quantitative
1NT 2club (Simple Stayman)
2spade 3 minor 5+m, 4heart, Game-force
3heart Artificial, , an unknown splinter raise in spades
4club Artificial, sets spades, slam try (usually balanced)
4diamond Artificial, RKCB in spades
4heart ? May be void splinter?
4NT Quantitative

Over the 3spade and 3heart unknown splinter raises, opener now bids the next step (3NT over 3spade, and 3spade over 3heart) to ‘ask’ where the splinter is, and you can respond however you want (via agreement). One way is, you can ‘respond’ your shortages up-the-line: So 1NT-2club | 2heart-3spade* | 3NT*-? 4club=Low (club) shortage, 4diamond=Middle (diamond) shortage, and 4heart=High (spade) shortage. Similarly, 1NT-2club | 2spade-3heart* | 3spade*-? 3NT=Low (club) shortage, 4club=Middle (diamond) shortage, and 4diamond=High (heart) shortage. The gains: You no longer need to give up the ‘natural’ spade splinter 1NT-2club-2heart-3spade. Plus, you can keycard and still might be able to stop at the 4-level.

The losses: When setting the major with 4club, you don’t have as much room for cuebids, whereas the previous 3-other-major allowed you to cuebid all of the suits.