Extending Stayman Scope

By James R. Klein

Either I am getting a little rigid or my bidding is so bad that I can’t afford the luxury of exotic conventions to take care of hands that rarely come up during a session. However, the chance to expand on the treatment of a familiar cornerstone convention is quite intriguing. The Stayman convention over one no-trump is a prime example of constructive improvement in scope which accomplishes a great deal more than its primary intention of finding a 4-4 major suit fit.
 Before you dismiss this idea, ask yourself some of the following questions. Have the opponents to often found the killing lead against your 1NT-3NT gambler? Do you miss your 4-4 minor suit slams and end up playing in bad 3NT contracts? Or worse, do you go down when a minor suit partial is marked? Do you miss games because you are afraid of incorrectly describing a hand with 15 to 17 points and a six card minor by opening 1NT? Do your 4-4 major suit fits frequently take as many or less than if the hand played in no-trump? In general, has your judgment been somewhat less than adequate after partner has opened one no-trump?
 Without altering any of the primary meanings of the Stayman sequences, we should be able to handle minor suit slam tries which depend on finding 4-4 fits. Some of the hands referred to are shown below as examples. How would you handle the following hands if you were responding to a 1NT opening by partner?

Mano 1		Mano 2		Mano 3		Mano 4		Mano 5
A 10 4 2  3        A Q 6 5   K Q 5 3		5              4 3 2        A 10 7 5 K Q 5 4 3		A              J 10 9 4        K 9 7 5     K 9 8 7		J 10 9 5 3      A Q 6 5        K Q 10 9		A 10 7 6           J 10 8      A Q 7 2       K Q

Hand 1 and 4 will probably produce a minor suit slam if a 4-4 minor suit is found but each can play at other contracts. Hands 1 and 5 could be played at either a spade or a diamond slam if a 4-4 fit is found. If no such fit exists then a 3NT contract may be tried.In order to facilitate exploration of minor suits over 1NT bids, I propose a 2 club response followed by 3 clubs as an extended Stayman asking for other suit information. Let us take a look at some sequences and their meanings.

Opener   Bid				Responder  Bid
1NT	15-17 PH			2	Bid 4 card major
2	No Major			3	Bid 4 card minor
3	Suit is Diamond			3	I like Diamond, spade control
4	Club Control			4NT	Keycards (Diamond)
5	1-4 Keycards			6	Slam in Diamonds
1NT	15-17 PH			2	Bid 4 card major
2	4 spades cards			3	Bid another 4 card suit
3	no other			3NT	to play
1NT	15-17 PH			2	Bid 4 card major
2	4 spades cards			3	Bid another 4 card suit
3	4 heart cards			4	to play
1NT	15-17 PH			2 a 2NT	transfer a los 4 palos
1NT	15-17 PH			2	Bid 4 card major
2	4 heart cards			2NT	Invita a game

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