• Normally with less than 7 points in your hand you would Pass.
  Your hand is absolutely useless to the Opener, as it is most unlikely that he will ever be able to get the lead into your hand and cash some Heart winners.
  Opener may well be weak in one or even two suits and perhaps not make the 1NT contract.

• Respond therefore : 2♥.
  Suddenly you have 6 powerful trumps in your hand, and likely to make three tricks with them.
  It provides a better contract, and alerts Opener that you have a unbalanced hand which is too weak to support a Game contract.

• Your bid is a Rescue bid. Opener must Pass.

• The same principle applies as for Hand 5. Make a Rescue bid of 2♥.

• Even if Opener only holds a doubleton Heart in his hand a 2♥ contract is much better than 1NT.
  
  
• Opener, once again, must Pass.

Say your Partner opens the bidding with 1NT, and you hold the following unbalanced hand. What is your response ?

• You have 9 points but being unbalanced should not respond with 2NT
• You have no 5 card suit and therefore should not respond with a suit bid either.

The solution to this problem is provided by the Stayman Convention
After an Opening bid of 1NT a Response of 2♣ is the Stayman Convention. It shows 8+ points, at least one 4 card major suit, and asks Opener to bid his 4 card major suit.
Opener's replies are :

1. 2♦ - with no 4 card major
2. 2♥ - with 4 Hearts (or 4 cards in both major suits)
3. 2♠ - with 4 Spades

Here are two typical examples.

You have an unbalanced hand with 9 points and both 4 card majors. An ideal hand to bid Stayman : 2♣

• South responds with Stayman 2♣
• North replies with 2♥ - showing a 4 card Heart suit.
• South, after revaluating his hand (12 pts including shortage pts) bids 4♥

• South responds with Stayman 2♣
• North replies with 2♦ - showing no 4 card major suit.
• South, with 9 points now bids 2NT
• North, with 18 points bids 3NT

• Make a Stayman Response of 2♣.
  This way you can explore the possibility of a trump fit in your 4 card Spade suit.
  If Partner denies having 4 Spades you can still bid your 5 card Diamond suit, warning him that your hand is not balanced.

• South responds with Stayman 2♣.
• North replies 2♥ - showing a 4 card Heart suit.
• South now bids 3♦ - showing an unbalanced hand with 4 Spades (as he did not support Opener's Hearts) and 5 Diamonds.
• North, confident that he has South's short suits (Clubs and Hearts) covered now bids 3NT.

• South responds with Stayman 2♣.
• North replies 2♥ - showing a 4 card Heart suit. (With both 4 card majors he also must bid Hearts.)
• South now bids 3♦ - showing an unbalanced hand with 4 Spades and 5 Diamonds.
• North, realising that South's 4 card major must be Spades now confidently bids 4♠.

  (Remember : South may only bid the Stayman Convention if he has at least one 4 card major. Otherwise there is no point in asking for 4 card major suits.)

1. The Stayman Convention can also be used for semibalanced hands and even with balanced 4432 distributions which includes a weak doubleton.

2. After a 2NT Opening - a 3♣ Response is also Stayman.

3. If you use the Stayman 2♣ bid, the weak Rescue bids can only be made for Diamonds, Hearts and Spades !

Traditionally the high - low signal (high card on one trick, often followed by a low card on the next or a later trick) is ecouraging, the low - high signal discouraging or neutral.
In recent times several variations are popularly in use, such as encouraging indicated by low - high, or odds - evens.

I have included high - low signals in Deal 19 and Deal 20 of this lesson.
Can you identify situations in Example Deals from earlier lessons where a high - low would be appropriate ?   (Answer).

Deals 17 to 20 are examples of bidding and play as outlined in this lesson.

• Print out of Deals 17 - 20 - Bidding & Play

• Solo Bidding : Lesson deals 17-20 - Practice deals 49-60

• Trick by trick : 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |

• Example hands : 17-20

• Practice Deals 1-60

• Individual Hands for all Deals

BR 8.6 - Quiz 8   - Answers - Review