Charles Bentley
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Brian – as a matter of interest I fist read about ‘bid the weaker 4-card minor’ in Paul Mendelson’s ‘The Right Way to Play Bridge’
Our agreement is on our card, Brian, but for sure only expert opponents ask. The same confusion arises with Julian’s system, doesn’t it, where opponents could lead a club believing there to be fewer clubs (as in Bernard’s system?
Interested to hear what David thinks.
And David, we play revolving discards (disclosed on our card) and I’m sure that gives us an advantage as weaker players never ask, or if they do, they don’t understand when we explain after 6D has been discarded in a 4S contract. ”We play revolving discards, so a low D asks for a club and a high D asks for a heart.” I hope this is OK.Julian, we play a variant of the Puppet Stayman you describe. After 2NT-3C-3D- we would bid 3NT with no 4 card suit (we’d been looking for 5/3 fit), 4C = 4/4 in majors and slam interest, 4D also = 4/4 in majors, but with no slam interest. Are these sound agreements?
Also, do you ever play 2NT-3C-3D/3H/3S-P i.e. distress Stayman?
And Brian asks about 2NT-3S. Is this best used for the minors (5+/5,?) or to show exactly 5 Ss and 4 Hs?
ThanksJulian, I agree with what you’ve said, but what about two 4-card minors? If they are both of similar strength we bid 1C (like Bernard advises), but if Ds are xxxx or Hxxx we will bid the weaker suit, i.e. Ds, then they won’t lead it. Is this a sound agreement, please?
Julian – would your four of a minor cue bid be 1st/2nd round control-showing or 1st round control (ace-void) please?
We use Stayman with 11HCP. With our Marty Bergen hand evaluation guidance, we knock a point off for a dubious doubleton, so only = 9HCP. 3 Aces & tens and 2 QJs, so no adjustment there and no five card suit. So pass. If playing at our clubs we’d have opened 1D, not 1NT, as that’s what the rest of the room would be doing!
Yes of course, even more so with juniors (and some not so junior) who struggle to understand the impact on partner of long pauses etc. A quiet word to the teacher away from the table is effective.
Hi Nik. Yes, as we play, cue bid of 3S followed by 4S could in theory be a void, but not in this auction as you suggest. Even if responder had started cue bidding with the nice club holding, after 3S-4C I guess responder would then sign off with a void spade and all HCP in clubs opposite a singleton/void club and no outside entries. We would (never have!) only bid 2C-4C to show a solid six card club suit.
Not quite right. All artificial bids are alerted in the first round of bidding even if above 3NT, so 1S-P-4C splinter is alerted.
Our auction would be (OK, SHOULD be)
P
2C 23+ or any game force
2D negative or waiting
3H setting Hs as trumps
3S Italian cue bid (A, K, singleton, void)
4C as above
4S showing AK spades but denying D control
5Hin 5H or 6H, I’d take out trumps and cross to dummy for the D finesse
With ace-showing cue bids declarer would bid 4D after 3S and responder might sign off in 4H or bid 4S (showing AK) and declarer would sign off in 5H
Nik, our partnership agreement is that a bid of a major in the 3rd seat in a competitive auction shows 5+ cards except after 1C-1D-
likewise, I’m happy to share our very detailed system card (and receive feedback!) jbentley@jbentley.co.uk
