[aguahombre]

"garbage stayman" or, "drop dead stayman"? I recall an article promoting a "garbage stayman" structure --advocating it be used on a lot of semi-balanced or balanced hands with 7 cards in the majors. I cannot imagine this being successful in the long run, at the expense of other systemic uses for stayman and its follow-ups. We have found long run success using "drop-dead", but almost always hold 5 diamonds when we use it, and always are very short in clubs.

[jdonn]

It wouldn't really matter if you didn't play it if 4441 was the only shape. But combining 4441, 3451, 4351, 4450, and sometimes 3460 or 4360 make it clearly worthwhile, and that's not even taking into account doing it with just the majors (and pulling 2♦) which is also a big winner (and 3415 which I have discussed before!)

[FrancesHinden]

I gave up 'garbage' or 'drop-dead' (or whatever) Stayman 10 years ago with one regular partner and 2 years ago with the other.

I don't miss it on the 3-suited hands at all.
I miss it slightly on the weak 5-4/5-5 major suited hands, but the advantages from the extra sequences we get seem to compensate.

(I don't play SEF either, so I can't tell you how the French manage these sequences)

[Tcyk]

Finding a spsde fit after 1N - 2♣ -2♥ is no problem unless there is a flaw in your system. Bidding 2NT to show 4-4 in the majors is a waste of bidding space and makes garbage Stayman impossible.

The solution is very simple and does allow 2C with a hand that does not have a 4-card major. If the response to Stayman is 2♦ or 2♥, 2♠ is an asking bid. It is forcing to game and opener tells more about his shape. I learned this as extended Stayman. I won't get into the details here but after 1NT - 2♣ - 2♥ - 2♠ (asking),
2NT shows 4 spades,
3♣ shows 4 hearts and 4 clubs or 3=4=3=3 shape,
3♦ shows 4 hearts and 4 diamonds,
3♥ shows 3=5=3=2 shape,
3♠ shows 3=5=2=3 shape and
3NT shows 2=5=3=3 shape.

The key to using this method is that transfers are made with weak or invitational strength hands, never with strength necessary to force to game. Yes this gives a lot of information to the opponents and can hurt you at times especially when playing MatchPoints. It also lets you find the proper contract and that is the goal of almost all bridge players.

[gnasher]

Tcyk, on Jul 1 2009, 11:59 PM, said:

It also lets you find the proper contract and that is the goal of almost all bridge players.

Is it? I think the trend these days is towards short, uninformative auctions to the most likely game.