- Hello.
The Stayman convention in bridge
is used to solve one very
specific bidding problem.
So, let's take a look
at that problem first
and then we'll see how Stayman works.
I'm playing a weak notrump today,
which means my partners
1NT shows
12 to 14 points.
But, Stayman works.
It doesn't matter how
strong your one notrump is.
The principle of Stayman still applies.
So, 1NT from North and I have
13 high card points.
That's plenty enough for game.
And a balanced hand, so I'm
going to bid 3NT.
And pass, pass, pass.
Pull this heart here.
I can try the queen.
I don't think it'll do me
any good, but I can try.
That's two tricks I've lost.
If I could get the lead, I'll be fine.
But, this is not looking good.
Whoops, follow suit with a heart.
And I'm down one already.
So, the opposition have taken five tricks
before I could get the lead.
Let's re-play the hand.
Okay, this is the same hand,
but this time I'm in a
contract of 4S.
And
well, I've lost one trick.
I'm going to lose two
hearts at some point.
But, that's all I'll lose
if spades is the trump suit.
Because if the opponent's
trying, had tried to take
three rounds of hearts,
I simply would have
ruffed the third round.
So, 4S here is
going to make, but
3NT went down.
Now I'm going to skip
to the end of the hand.
All right, so just looking
at the North and South hands,
3NT goes down,
even though we've got two balanced hands.
But, 4S.
And this is often a situation
with two balanced hands
that when you you have a four-four fit,
so that's four spades and
four spades in the South hand.
Four spades in the North hand,
four spades in the South hand,
that's often a better
contract than 3NT.
But, there's a problem.
After partners opening 1NT,
how do we actually get to
this contract of 4S?
Now the thing is here,
if I bid 2S,
1NT pass, 2S, that would show
a five-card spade suit.
And I only have a four-card spade suit.
Even if you're playing transfers,
you will bid 2H to
show a five-card spade suit.
But, there's no way to
show a four-card spade suit
at the two level.
And one 1NT 3S, that would also show,
at least, a five-card spade suit.
One notrump, 4S?
Well, that's gotta be
a six-card spade suit.
So, I have no way of showing
a four-card spade suit
and therefore, we have
no way of finding our
four-four spade.
So, Stayman.
Now, the way Stayman works
is that after 1NT from partner,
I bid 2C.
And that 2C bid
is an artificial bid.
It doesn't say anything
about the club suit.
And it asks partner to
bid a four-card major,
if he has one.
And if he doesn't have one,
he bids two diamonds as
the negative bid saying he
doesn't have a four-card major.
So, let's see how this works on this hand.
(clears throat) Excuse me.
I bid 2C.
Doesn't say anything about my club suit.
I happen to have clubs here,
but all I'm doing is asking
a question to partner.
Do you have a four-card major?
And partner says "Yes, I do.
I have a four-card spade suit.
And so, I bid 4S.
And if partner had said
"No, I don't have a four-card spade suit.
I would have just bid 3NT
as I would have done before anyway.
So, playing Stayman it means
you're no longer able to
bid 2C naturally.
You can't bid 2C
to show clubs anymore.
So, you've got to sacrifice
the meaning of that
2C bid.
But, it's not much of a loss.
You're really not often
going to want to play
in 2C after partner's
opened 1NT.
And Stayman is a very popular convention.
It's played all around
the world by players
playing all sorts of systems
and it's a good one to know.
Let's take a look at a few
common Stayman sequences.
1NT here from North,
and remember I'm playing a weak notrump.
So, 1NT for me
shows 12 to 14 points.
If you're playing standard
with a 15 to 17 1NT,
you can adjust your point counts a bit.
But, the principle still applies.
So, 1NT and I have
six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11
high card points.
Not quite enough to bid game.
Enough to invite partner to game,
so I could bid 2NT
to invite partner to game.
But, we might have a heart fit.
So, I want to invite partner to game,
but also find out if
we've got a heart fit.
So, here I'm going to bid 2C.
And if partner bids 2D,
which would say that he does
not have a four-card major,
I would just bid 2NT,
which I was going to do anyway.
Same if North bids 2S,
I've just gone back
to 2NT and invite North to game.
So, let's see what happens.
Oh, that's good news!
Partner's showing a four-card heart suit.
I'm still not quite
strong enough to bid game
because partner has 12 to 14
and not quite good enough.
So, I can bid 3H now.
1NT pass, 2C
pass, 2H, 3H.
I'm raising partner's heart
suit to the three level.
So, I'm inviting partner to go to game.
If North has a minimum hand 12 points,
he'll leave it on 3H.
If he has a maximum hand, 13 or 14 points,
he'll bid 4H.
And, in fact, he bid 4H.
So we can see North has 14 high
card points, so his maximum.
And he has a four-card heart suit,
and 4H looks like
a pretty good contract.
Let's try one from the
opener's point of view.
This time I have 14 points, balanced hand,
playing a weak notrump.
That's a good 1NT opening.
And this time, partner bids 2C.
That's Stayman.
It doesn't say anything
about the club suit.
North is just saying to me "Do
you have a four-card major?
If I did not have a four-card major,
I would bid 2D
as the negative bid.
But, I do have a four-card major.
I've got a four-card heart suit.
So, I will bid 2H.
And partner bids 2NT.
So, it sounds like my four-card
heart suit was not the suit
that North was hoping I would bid.
So, it looks like North actually
had a four-card spade suit.
So, that's life.
And 2NT from North here
shows exactly the same number of points
as it would had he bid
two notrumps directly.
So, 1NT, 2NT.
Same point count as
1NT, 2C,
2H, 2NT.
So, for Acol players,
that's about 11 or 12 points.
Standards players, eight or nine points.
And so North is inviting me to game.
I have 14 high card
points, so I'm maximum.
So, I will bid 3NT.
And sure enough, North
has a four-card spade suit
and 11 high card points.
Most of the time,
when you are using Stayman,
after 1NT, 2C,
whatever the opener bids
on the second round,
you'll either jump to game
or maybe make an invitational
bid of 2NT
or raising your partner's suit.
But sometimes, you'll have a weak hand
and you'll be able to use Stayman.
So here, after 1NT from North,
I'm going to bid 2C.
And I'm gonna pass whatever North bids.
If North bids 2H, that's great.
We'll play in 2H,
which should be better than
or less worse than a 1NT contract.
1NT is gonna be pretty awful.
2H is going to be better.
Or less worse.
2S, if partner bids
2S, that's great.
I'm happy to play in 2S.
And if partner bids 2D,
which doesn't say anything about
diamonds, it would just say
that North does not
have a four-card major.
Actually, I still don't mind
because I've got all those diamonds.
So, it doesn't matter
what partners responds.
I can, I'm happy with whatever he does.
And North is passed.
And that's great.
So, here we are playing in 2D
and that looks like a
pretty good contract.
So, very important with Stayman
it doesn't matter what partner bids.
You always have to be able to cope
with any response from your partner.
If you Stayman and partner
gives you a bad reply,
something you didn't want to hear.
If you've got nowhere
to go, then you probably
shouldn't have used
Stayman in the first place.
Have fun with Stayman.
See you next time.
