BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

YOur partner, North, deals and opens 1NT (12-14), and next hand passes. What action would you take? MAny players have the mistaken idea that they mustn’t use the Stayman response of 2 ♣ , to look for a major suit fit, on hands of less than 11 points. This is quite wrong. The rule is that you shouldn’t use Stayman unless you have a suitable course of action to take over whatever opener rebids.

What this amounts to is that on weak hands, you need to be able to cope with opener’s possible 2 ♦ rebid, denying a four-card major. So on the hand above, bid 2 ♣ and pass if opener rebids 2 ♥ or 2 ♠ as you have found the fit.

If he rebids 2 ♦ , denying a four- card major, rebid 2 ♥ , which is just as much a weak take-out as it would have been had you bid it in the first instance. you chose 2 ♣ because it gave you the no-cost option to look for a fit in either major.