[cencio]

After the 1 nt open of your partner if you have a 5 5 majors hand with low points, How do you bid.
The hand that gave me the doubts.
♠97643♥qj842♦t7♣6

[Stephen Tu]

"Crawling stayman" is reasonably popular these days. Bid 2c stayman, if partner bids major you have easy pass. If partner bids 2d, bid 2H showing weak hand with both majors. You can also try this with weak hands with 54/45 majors, not just 55.

One needs to discuss whether 1nt-2c-2d-2s is weak, both majors, longer spades (5=4 in majors), catering to getting to 5-3/5-2 fits more consistently, or if you are playing this as invitational with 5 spades (catering to lighter invites on shapely 5 cd spade hands that improve greatly with a real fit, ones not wanting to risk transfer followed by 2nt which might end in thin 3nt).

If not playing crawling stayman, you basically have to pick a suit to transfer to, transfer then pass, then hope it's the right one.

[apollo1201]

Stephen Tu, on 2019-April-24, 06:59, said:

If not playing crawling stayman, you basically have to pick a suit to transfer to, transfer then pass, then hope it's the right one.

And in that case, better pick S. First, your transfer bid of 2H is less likely to be Xed than 2D by LHO (which might elicit a 3D compete from RHO). And then, if opponents still compete, you get a chance to cheaply present your H suit as well, letting partner pick his choice at the 3 level.
After all, with 55 shape and a few points, you could easily make 9 tricks in 3M, or 8 as a good sacrifice against a making 3m. Of course, I suppose partner has a strong NT. Over a weak NT, let them play 3m instead of 3NT!

[gszes]

The main disadvantage to crawling stayman is it loses the 1n 2c 2d 2h and 1n 2c 2d 2s invitational sequences and there are other problems where even smolen can get lost (among other changes). If you are unwilling to give these things up it might be best to just transfer to the major with the best BODY if there is no significant HCP difference. Q5432 T9872 I would choose the T9872 suit. If the suits are approximately even IMHO chose to transfer to hearts. This give you a surprise out with 2s if it appears one of the opps is salivating while they are wielding (or passing) the axe. If you transfer to spades (always) and the opps compete your 3h bid should be anything but WEAK. You have been let off the hook and do not have to compete with a weak hand.

[HardVector]

apollo1201, on 2019-April-24, 15:27, said:

And in that case, better pick S. First, your transfer bid of 2H is less likely to be Xed than 2D by LHO (which might elicit a 3D compete from RHO). And then, if opponents still compete, you get a chance to cheaply present your H suit as well, letting partner pick his choice at the 3 level.
After all, with 55 shape and a few points, you could easily make 9 tricks in 3M, or 8 as a good sacrifice against a making 3m. Of course, I suppose partner has a strong NT. Over a weak NT, let them play 3m instead of 3NT!

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I'm not a big fan of crawling Stayman, I prefer those sequences to show invitational hands. This is how you show a weak 5/5 major suit hand. If you are weak with 5/4, then just transfer to the 5 card suit and SHUT UP!.

[Cyberyeti]

HardVector, on 2019-April-24, 19:19, said:

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I'm not a big fan of crawling Stayman, I prefer those sequences to show invitational hands. This is how you show a weak 5/5 major suit hand. If you are weak with 5/4, then just transfer to the 5 card suit and SHUT UP!.

You can do this much more happily playing a strong NT, weak NT needs crawling stayman, OP doesn't specify.

[miamijd]

gszes, on 2019-April-24, 16:40, said:

The main disadvantage to crawling stayman is it loses the 1n 2c 2d 2h and 1n 2c 2d 2s invitational sequences and there are other problems where even smolen can get lost (among other changes). If you are unwilling to give these things up it might be best to just transfer to the major with the best BODY if there is no significant HCP difference. Q5432 T9872 I would choose the T9872 suit. If the suits are approximately even IMHO chose to transfer to hearts. This give you a surprise out with 2s if it appears one of the opps is salivating while they are wielding (or passing) the axe. If you transfer to spades (always) and the opps compete your 3h bid should be anything but WEAK. You have been let off the hook and do not have to compete with a weak hand.

I think your analysis is flawed. You don't have to give up much of anything. The only "loss" from Garbage Stayman is that you'll play 3H instead of 2H when you have 5H and 4S and partner has 3H, 2-3S, and a hand that can't accept the invite. A very, very small price.

No system handles every hand perfectly. Garbage Stayman comes up from time to time and confers great benefits when it does. What do you lose? Virtually nothing.

On the 5S 4H hands, you really do lose nothing, as your bidding is unaffected. You can still bid 2C followed by 2S if you like, as Garbage Stayman only occupies the 2H rebid after 2D, NOT the 2S rebid.

On the 5H 4S hands, you transfer to hearts and then bid 2S. Yes, you'll get to 3H instead of 2H where partner specifically has 3H and 2-3 spades and can't accept the invite. Not a big deal.

Cheers,
Mike

[msjennifer]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-April-25, 07:04, said:

You can do this much more happily playing a strong NT, weak NT needs crawling stayman, OP doesn't specify.

Sir,you are quite right and I fully agree and like your reply.Thanks.

[msjennifer]

deleted wrong hand