"It'll Never Last" Stayman by Marti Ronemus

This week in 1983 IBM launched the first PCs. Remember the laughter? "What are we going to do with it, store recipes?" And the scornful "It'll never last." Same kind of remarks when the first Talking Motion Pictures and the television came out.

Remember those big floppy discs? Remember DOS? And now, we can't go 20 minutes without checking our VERY personal computers, carried in our hands.

Today for our quiz we're going to explore an innovation in our game that, believe it or not, people resisted initially... Stayman!! My goodness, most of us can't imagine how people bid accurately without it.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ 10 2
♥ A J 8 7
♦ 9 6
♣ K J 10 5 4

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1 No-trump	p
2♣	p	2♥	P
?

A: 4♥: We ask Pard if he has a four-card major and he has Hearts with us. Fantastic! Should we bid our Clubs? You can't be serious. Should we invite or go to game? With distribution we've got game-going values IF we play in a trump suit.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 10 2
♥ A J 8 7
♦ 9 6
♣ K J 10 5 4

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1 No-trump	p
2♣	p	2♠	P
?

A: 2 No-trump: No point bidding our Hearts. Pard denied holding them. No point bidding the Clubs.They will be useful in No-trump. Our real decision is between 2 No-trump and 3 No-trump. Some would bid 3 No-trump because of the fifth Club. Give yourself credit if you bid that. Why did we choose 2 No-trump? We have two naked suits and we aren't crazy about the rest of the hand. Why not invite?

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ Q 10 8 7
♥ K J 10 9 4
♦ A 8
♣ 5 4

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1 No-trump	p
?

A: 2♣: This one often stumps less experienced players. Here's how you handle it. We begin with Stayman. If Pard bids either major, we've got our fit and either invite or go to game. With this hand, we'd go to game.
If Pard bids 2♦, denying a major, we then bid our five-card suit, and Pard will compute that we've got 5-4. Now he'll know what to do. Or we hope he will.
Down the road, there's a nifty little trick called Smolen that ensures Pard names the 5-card suit first. For now, just master this much.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 5 4 3 2
♥ 9 8 7 6
♦ 6 5 4 3 2
♣

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1 No-trump	p
?

A: 2♣: What you really want to do is Pass and go hide in the restroom. BUT!! Stop and think: this hand isn't as useless as it looks at first. Our void is actually an asset. This BTW, is called Trash Stayman. We are going to bid 2♣, and no matter what Pard bids, we are passing. If he bids Diamonds for denial, he's got to have three Diamonds, right? If he bids either major, our void is helpful. Just don't leave the poor guy in No-trump. It does not compute!!

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ K Q J 9
♥ A J 9
♦ K J 4
♣ Q J 8

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1 NT	Pass
?

A: 6 No-trump: Do you need a computer to Do the Math? You've got 18 pts. The least the partnership has is 33. The most, 35. That is slam. Next question: Should we use Stayman first? No. Why? The reason we like to play in a suit is so we can trump in the dummy. We have no shortness. Should we ask for aces? You can if you want, so give yourself part credit if you bid 4♣, Gerber asking for aces over No-trump.

And now, let's use up a little of our hard-drive space and play a hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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