THE NAME WAS THRUST UPON HIM

We have all heard of the Stayman convention. You probably assumed that it was devised by Sam Stayman, a New York expert who won three Bermuda Bowl world team titles, in 1950, ‘51 and ‘53, and 20 national championships.

However, Sam did not devise Stayman. That was done independently by Jack Marx from London and George Rapee from New York. Rapee suggested it to his then-partner Stayman. Sam thought it was such a good idea that he immediately wrote an article for The Bridge World magazine, and his name stuck.

Today’s deal was played by Stayman in New York’s famous Cavendish Club in 1949. How did he play in seven no-trump after West led the spade jack?

One no-trump showed 1619 points in those days. North used the Gerber convention to learn that his partner had one ace and four kings.

There seemed to be 13 top tricks. But Stayman was not willing to rely on good breaks, especially as it was rubber bridge with a sizable sum on the line.

Stayman won with dummy’s spade ace and cashed the club ace, to see if the clubs were 5-0.

When both opponents followed, he played off his top spades (discarding a club from dummy), his top hearts, the diamond king and the diamond ace. At this point, Stayman had learned that West had begun with six spades, four hearts, two diamonds and one club. That meant East had started with four clubs. Stayman led the club 10 from the dummy and ran it when East played low. A club to the king, a diamond to the queen, and the club queen completed the 13 tricks.