DON’T LOSE THAT MAJOR SUIT!

By Neil Petrie

This lesson will review various bidding procedures and conventions that allow partnerships to find their major suit fits. The advice is based on the simple premise that, in the long run, you will usually be better off playing in your eight-card (or better) major suit fits rather than in no-trump or the minors.

The majors are most often lost either in 1) auctions that begin with opening no-trump bids or 2) highly competitive auctions.

1. Troublesome Stayman auctions.

Partner opens 1NT. How do you describe the following distribution:

XXXX XXXX XX XXX With 0-7 points? With 8-9 points? With 10+ points?

You should pass the first situtation since your hand will not play well above 1NT unless partner has a four-card major. You are not strong enough to invite a game, which is the first requisite for starting any Stayman auction. Alas, you sometimes miss a major fit this way. This is one situation in which weak no-trumpers may gain an advantage, since they will open one of a minor with flat 15-17 point hands, and a partner with 6-7 points will be able to bid at the one level, increasing the chances of finding a major fit. (They lose, however, when a weak no-trump is opened and partner lacks the strength to bid Stayman). Sometimes, it’s not worth the risk to check on a major fit.

With the invitational hand (8-9) you can bid Stayman (2C) and then invite a game by raising a major to 3 or bidding 2NT over a 2D response.

With the game-going hand (10+), you simply raise a major suit to game or jump to 3NT over the 2D response.

Now change seats. You open 1NT with a hand that has the same distributional pattern as above and partner bids 2C, looking for a major. Remember a rule here: HEARTS FIRST IF YOU HOLD BOTH MAJORS: bid 2H. Why? Because this is the only way to be sure you will not lose the heart suit. Partner may invite with 2NT over a 2S bid, and unless you play that 2C Stayman always promises at least one major, you will be unsure of whether she holds four hearts. However, once you bid hearts first, partner can invite a game holding 4 spades with a 2S bid. Since you have now found the fit, opener can either pass at the 2 level with a minimum NT opener, or can accept and go to 4S. There is also no problem if partner jumps to 3NT over your 2H response, since you can now correct to 4S, knowing that partner would not have initiated Stayman without a major suit and a game-going hand.

2. Other Problem Distributions.

Partner opens 1NT. How do you handled 4-5, 5-4, 5-5, or even 6-5 holdings in the majors?

1. With absolute minimum hands, you will still be better off playing in a major most of the time. With 5-4 distributions you transfer to the 5-card major and pass the response. Occasionally this means missing a 4-4 fit in the other major, but life isn’t always perfect. With proper distribution and 0 pts., you can play drop-dead Stayman, passing whatever partner responds if you hold 4-4-5-0 distribution. A variation is Garbage Stayman: with a weak 5-5 major hand, you bid Stayman, planning on passing a major bid, or bidding 2H over 2D, which partner either passes or corrects to 2S. Some brave souls even bid Garbage with 5-4 hands, risking playing in a 4-3 fit.

2. With an invitational hand 5-4 hand, you can start with Stayman and bid 2S over a 2D response. With 4-5, you transfer to hearts and then bid 2S, showing five hearts and 4 spades. An invitational 5-5 hand is tough unless you play the 3H bid as showing this specific strength and distribution.

3. You have more latitude with game-going strength. You can use Smolen with all forcing 5-4 hands. Simply bid 2C for starters. Raise any 2 of a major rebid to 4. Over the expected 2D bid, a jump to 3 of a major promises game-going values, 4 cards in the major you bid, and 5 cards in the other major. With 3-card support for the unbid major, opener should go to game in that suit, knowing partner holds 5 of them. If you don’t want to use this handy convention, you will have to transfer to your five card major and then bid your 4 card major at the 3 level.

With game-going strength and 5-5, I would recommend you transfer to spades and then jump to 4H. Partner can pass or correct. You can show 6 spades and 5 hearts by transferring to spades, bidding 3H, and following up with 4H if necessary.

3. An Introduction to Puppet Stayman.

You have even less room to explore for a major fit after a 2NT opener, and opener is more likely to hold a 5-card major suit than if she opens 1NT (ask me later why I don’t recommend opening 1NT holding a 5-card major; there are other ways of showing strength).

Puppet Stayman is a bid of 3C that asks opener whether she holds either a 5 or 4-card major suit. The responses to the simple form are these: bid 3H or 3S directly over the 3C to show a five-card major. Bid 3D to show one or two 4-card majors. 3NT denies holding either a 5 or 4-card major suit.

Responder confirms 4-4 fits over the 3D response by bidding 4D if she holds both majors. Opener then bids her major. If responder holds a single 4-card major, she bids the suit she doesn’t hold over 3D. Opener either goes to 3NT or 4 of the other major if she fits that suit.

4. Negative doubles and free bids in competition.

Major fits are most often lost during competitive auctions, especially when one side pre-empts the bidding. Even a 2C overcall over a 1D opening can create chaos since the bid bypassed the one level and leaves responder with a problem holding, say, one 4-card major but not both, or a 5-card major without the strength to make a free bid, which usually requires at least 10 points.

Use a Negative Double over any interference bid with reasonable values (8-10) and a place to land at the 2 level. Bid freely with a good 10 or more and at least a 5-card suit. At times this means doubling 1S with 5 or 6 hearts and less than 10 points. Having limited your hand with the negative double, you can next bid your suit with a good 5-bagger or more. Some partners agree to play Negative Freebids, in which the bid over the overcall of a new suit denies 10 points, just showing length in that suit.

Opener must at times try to judge whether responding to a negative double should be made on 3-card support. What do you do with the following hand when the bidding (you as opener) has gone 1C—1S—Dbl—P--?:

x Axx KQxx AQxxx

2D could be right. The negative doubler often has both of the unbid suits. Partner might pass this or correct to 3C if he or she has some support there. If your right hand opponent had raised spades to 2, you can show this nice hand with a responsive double. Given the situation, especially at matchpoints, I suggest you bid 2 hearts, knowing that partner has at least 4 and maybe more. With this style, you then need to enjoy playing the occasional 4-3 fit.

Or how about this hand? The analysis gets very interesting. You hold:

AKxxx AKJ A xxxx

What do you call after this auction: 1S—2C—X—3C--? Switch the minors and you may want to make a responsive double. If you do this and partner returns to 3D or even 3S, showing a doubleton, you are still in a quandary about what to do. However, given your shortness in diamonds and length in clubs, you might reason this way: Partner must be very short in clubs since you have 4 and opponents have bid and raised them. Partner is also somewhat short in spades, since she didn’t raise that suit. With 6 diamonds and only 4 hearts, partner might have passed or ventured 2D over the 2C overcall. The odds are that partner’s neg. dbl. was made on long hearts. You not only have great 3-card support, but lots of extra values. The winning bid is 4H. 3H will no doubt get passed out. The opponents don’t really have the values to take a push to 4 of their minor and partner, even with a heart fit probably can’t go to 4 on her own. At the table, when a similar hand came up, partner actually had a weak 6-bagger in the heart suit and 4 was cold.

5. Odds and Ends in competition to find the major.

Many play that a negative double over a one heart overcall shows exactly 4 spades and that 1m—1H—1S promises 5 or more.

Don’t be afraid to bid your major over a take-out double, even if you only hold 4 of them. Too many opponents are making off-shape doubles these days and your failure to bid your major may mean losing your best fit.

Show your major with a negative double even if you have a good fit for opener’s suit. At worst, you can return to opener’s first suit; at best you might uncover a double fit. This hand came up the other day: Axxx x Qxx KJxxx

Make the negative double after partner opens 1C and LHO overcalls 1H. You have a 4-4 spade fit and a 5-5 club fit. You lose the spades if you raise clubs immediately. As I recall, spades makes 3 and clubs makes 4. At matchpoints that means 140 beats 130.

Bypass 1D if you have a minimum response over partner’s 1C opener. With

xx Kxxx QJxxx xx (or even a sixth diamond and one less black card) you should bid 1H over partner’s 1C opener. If you bid 1D and LHO bids any number of spades, the heart suit may get lost.