Puppet Stayman
This is not one of my favourite conventions, but twice recently I have played against those playing it, and each time they didn't use it. I am interested in opinions whether it should be used with balanced hands?
Last week the opponents held AQ9, KQ84 AJ62 A5, and opened 2NT. Their partner held J85, AT75, K97, Q62 and bid 3NT. Making 4 for an average board. When I asked why he did not Puppet, (he announced he was playing it), he said it was balanced.
4 tables bid 4 hearts, making 5, for an 87% board. What do you think, do you have to hold a doubleton in your hand before you puppet?
Latest Posts on this Thread
- Michael Ware16 Jun 2016 at 06:04PM
Hi Stanley,
There are many good players who with 4333 shape, ignore the major and always just bid 3NT. They are in the right contract most of the time - lets say 85% for arguments sake, and when they are wrong, they just shrug and say "swings and round-a-bouts". I strongly disagree. I like to try to bid to the right contract more often than that.
No trump openings (both 1 and 2) are getting more and more unbalanced by the day. If you hold AKxx xxx xxx xxx over a 2NT opening, you should definitly stayman. Partner can easily have 2 small or even a singlton honour in one of your xxx's and have 4 or 5 spades. Indeed I have seen 6 card majors in 2NT openings! This is clear at teams where safest contract is priority, but the principle still holds at matchpoints.
Michael
- BARRY JONES16 Jun 2016 at 07:26PM
I have to admit I tend to just bid 3NT with 4333 shape though what Michael says makes sense.
Jeez if I start agonising over hands like this at the table though I'll grow old before my time.
Wouldn't it be better to bid a quick 3NT and still look like Justin Bieber's twin brother ?
- 13 Jul 2016 at 04:54PM
Hi Stan
Puppet Stayman every time for me. I'd repeat what Mike has said and add three things of my own.
- It is not just a 4/4 you might miss by just bidding 3NT, it is also the 5/4 and I always want to play in them.
- If the 2NT opener has a 4333 with a bad 4 card major they don't have to own up to it.
- The time I'm most likely to give up on a 4/4 fit as repsonder is when I'm 4333, and have a very poor quality 4 card suit, and we are playing teams so that overs don't matter so much, and we have a combined strength in the 29-31 style range. [Not that often] That tends to be the cases where you struggle to make 4M on a bad trump break or ruffs, but you have 9 trickes elsewhere.
Regards
Scott
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