The Stayman Convention

Two clubs, asking one question: have you got a four-card major?

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What 2♣ Asks, and What Opener Answers#

Over partner's 1NT opening, 2♣ is Stayman. It is artificial: it says nothing whatever about clubs, and opener must not pass it. It asks one question and only one — have you got a four-card major?

There are three possible answers, and opener is obliged to give one of them:

Holding both majors, opener always bids 2♥ first. It is the cheaper of the two, so an auction that starts there can still find spades on the next round; one that starts 2♠ has already passed the heart fit and cannot go back for it.

What the whole apparatus is hunting for is the 4-4 major fit. Eight trumps across the two hands generally take one trick more than the same cards played in no trumps, because the hand with the shorter side suit can ruff with a trump that would otherwise have been idle. That matters less for the scoresheet — 3NT and 4♥ are both game — than for the count: a combined twenty-five points that comes up one trick short in no trumps is frequently exactly enough in a major.

Which Hands Should Ask#

Two conditions, and both are required.

• At least one four-card major of your own. Without one there is no fit to find, and no answer opener can give you that helps.
• Invitational values or better — roughly 8 points opposite a 12–14 no trump, 11 opposite a 15–17 one. Stayman commits your side to the two level at minimum, and often higher; a hand that cannot stand that should pass 1NT out.

The commonest error is asking with a five-card major. Do not: that is what a transfer is for. Stayman looks for four opposite four, and with five you already know something the answer cannot tell you. Transferring also puts opener — the concealed, stronger hand — in the chair, so the opening lead comes up to it rather than through it.

The second commonest is asking on 4-3-3-3. The extra trick that justifies the whole convention comes from ruffing, and a hand with no doubleton has nothing to ruff with. Four-three-three-three opposite a balanced no trump belongs in no trumps; bid the number of no trumps your points are worth and leave the majors alone.

What to Bid After the Answer#

Stayman is only the first question. The bid that follows opener's reply is what actually chooses the contract, and it divides cleanly.

After 2♦, no major. You are in no trumps after all. Bid 2NT to invite — opener passes with a minimum and raises with a maximum — or 3NT to play. Your side has lost nothing by asking: opener has described the hand further, and you have described yours.

After 2♥ or 2♠, and you hold that major too. The fit is found and the auction is nearly over. Raise to three of the major to invite, or straight to four to play it. There is nothing left to investigate.

After 2♥ or 2♠, and you do not hold that major. You were asking about the other one, and opener has denied it — a 2♠ answer denies four hearts outright, and a 2♥ answer at least means hearts came first. Fall back on no trumps at the level your values justify.

Rase's robots follow exactly this ladder, and the Analysis screen after the hand will tell you which rung your own auction landed on, and what it cost if it was the wrong one.

Why the Robots Never Bid It on a Bust#

Some partnerships play a weak variant — "garbage" or "crawling" Stayman — where a hand with nothing at all bids 2♣ intending to pass whatever opener answers, on the theory that any two-level part-score beats 1NT with a Yarborough opposite. It is a real treatment and a defensible one.

Rase does not play it, in either system, and it is worth knowing why before you find yourself waiting for a robot to do it. Bidding Stayman in this app promises invitational values, and the engine will never follow it with a pass at the two level — its floor after any answer is an invitation. That makes the convention mean one thing rather than two, which is what lets the robot opposite you read it correctly every time.

The practical consequence for you: with a genuinely weak hand and no long suit, pass 1NT. With a weak hand and a five-card major, transfer instead — that is the escape route, and it is designed for exactly this.

What a Part-score Does to the Ask#

Here is the part no duplicate textbook covers, because in duplicate it never arises. In rubber bridge a part-score changes where game is, and Stayman has to stop somewhere different as a result.

With 60 below the line, 2♥ scores 60 more and completes the game. Four hearts is no longer the target; two hearts is. An auction that mechanically drives to four of the major after finding a fit is not being thorough, it is bidding two tricks past the thing it was trying to reach, and giving the defence two extra chances to collect a penalty on the way.

Rase's bidding engine takes the pad into account when it answers this. With a part-score on, the fit is confirmed and the contract is placed at the level that actually scores the game — which may be two of the major, or 2NT, rather than four or three no trumps. If the answer has already reached that level, it passes and takes the game.

So: check the pad before you ask. Stayman is still right — you would rather play 2♥ than 1NT — but the auction it starts is a shorter one.

Stayman Over a 2NT Opening#

The same convention runs one level higher over a 2NT opening: 3♣ is Stayman, and opener answers 3♦ (no four-card major), 3♥ or 3♠ on the same principles as before, hearts first with both.

The values needed are different, though, and much lower. Opposite a 2NT opening you are already close to game on almost anything, so the question is not whether to bid game but which game to bid. A four-card major and a couple of points is reason enough to ask.

The switch that controls this is a single one: turning Stayman off in Settings turns it off over both 1NT and 2NT, and 2♣ and 3♣ become natural club bids.