[DavidKok]

1. Overview
I've split this into a second topic. The reason for that is twofold - firstly I think basic mini-Heeman is very playable without any of the nuances below, so I think it is productive to split the discussion into comments on the base system and comments on the more complicated add-ons and gadgets. Secondly I wouldn't want to re-open the topic with several posts partway through the discussion, which will make them more difficult to find.

There are four bonus topics I wanted to share my thoughts on. These are not as polished as the core mini-Heeman system. They are also not nearly of equal length. My hope is you can use none, some or all of these independently.

Table of contents:

• Overview
  
• Superaccepts
  
• Optimisations
  
• Transfer Extensions
  
• Good old college game tries

As a final remark: some people have pointed out that mini-Heeman will need accurate alerts and explanations at the table. The bonus suggestions will make this issue several times worse. If there is an interest in written out explanations of each of the bids (along the lines of: "contains the following hand types", or "invitational+ with 4(+) hearts, unless..") I would love to hear it.

[DavidKok]

2. Superaccepts
When partner transfers to a suit it is somewhat common to superaccept the transfer with a 4-card support (although it is probably wise to refuse to superaccept with a very unsuitable hand - for example 4333 with values in all short suits). There are two common ways of playing superaccepts:

• Bid 2NT with a maximum with 4-card support, 3M with a minimum.
  
• Bid 3M with a minimum with 4-card support, 2NT with a maximum and all suits guarded, and an unguarded suit with a maximum and weakness (some people count Qx or Jxx or even xxx as a 'guard' for these purposes).

Regardless of style a superaccept confirms the trump suit. Partner can start bidding controls (or, depending on agreements, other game/slam tries) or give a retransfer by bidding directly under the trump suit, right-siding the contract and avoiding giving away more information.

The second style is more descriptive and makes better use of bidding space, allowing responder to judge with greater accuracy whether or not game/slam might be on. However, it also has three significant downsides:

• If partner already knew which level we should play from just hearing min/max and the level of the fit we have unnecessarily leaked information.
  
• When our unguarded suit is directly below the major suit there is no retransfer available, which can wrongside the contract.
  
• The 2NT showing stops in all unbid suits is easy to forget and not that important if we are going to play in our trump suit anyway.

There are slight modifications to the second style - for example, only showing a potential ruffing value in a side-suit (exactly a doubleton with two small, Ax or sometimes Kx depending on partnership agreement). Personally I would recommend the first style - opener only shows min or max, over which responder is in control. If controls are necessary we will find out about them the round after.

[DavidKok]

3. Optimisations
This will be the longest part by far, suggesting possible changes to get more out of mini-Heeman. Some of these changes will overrule earlier explanations of what calls mean, which in turn also mean it will be far more challenging to explain OTB what each bid means (since it will frequently be one of multiple options).

• Holding a 5M332 GF hand it scores better at IMPs to play 3NT even if a 5-3 fit exists, and 4M only when partner has got 4-card support (most people approach this fact from the inverse angle - on auctions like 1M-2M or 1M-2NT, we wish to stop in 3NT only if both sides are balanced and we have a 5-3 fit). It therefore makes sense to start with a transfer with these hand types, ostensibly showing exactly a 4-card suit, and then jumping to 3NT (or jumping/retransfering to 4M if opener superaccepts) on the second round. Incidentally this frees up the auctions 1NT-2♣; 2♦-3NT (responder always has a 6th heart, a 4-card side suit or exactly 5332) and 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♥; 2♠-3NT. I believe including these hand types in the transfers is good for its own sake, but you may additionally add new meaning to these freed sequences (in mini-Heeman style I would recommend a good 6-card suit in the major suit shown, pass or correct).
  • We can go one step further, and even include invitational 5M332 hands into this approach. I am not aware of any statistical analysis of 2NT versus 3M with a 5-3 fit when we are slightly too weak for game, so this might cost some.
    
  • If you treat balanced 5cM invitational hands as 'requiring 4 opposite to suggest this suit as trumps' that frees up the valuable 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2NT and 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♥; 2♠-2NT sequences, enabling (for example) transfer extensions.
    
  • Alternatively, note that 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♥ always shows 5(+)♠, inv(+) values. It is possible to have opener 'superaccept' the spade game try with 2NT and above, for example with any 3-card spade suit or doubleton with a maximum, while 2♠ shows a minimum without fit. This would let responder pass the 2♠ response holding a minimum game try (one of the strengths of Spademan). When opener has a 3-card fit this is most likely fine - we establish the trump suit at a low level, and responder can continue describing the hand. When opener has got a maximum with a doubleton I fear this might get in the way of responder's plan to show their shape, so this treatment is not without cost. There might be better criteria for superaccepting that resolve this issue.
    
  • In all the above, hands that are 'nearly' 5M332, in particular 5M4m with doubletons with honours in the other suits, or perhaps even (53)(41) with a singleton honour, are probably best off using the treatment for 5M332 hands instead of showing a weak 4-card suit.
• Many people will skip Stayman when holding a 4333-hand type, or sometimes even with (say) 4=3=4=2. Mini-Heeman has the advantage of not leaking information about opener's other major suit holding, so there is less of a downside to showing the 4-card suit.
  
• In the original Heeman the auctions 1NT-2♦; 2♥-3♣/3♦ show exactly invitational values (4♥5(+)m), and game forcing hands with this shape are shown artificially by bidding making an encoded bid on the second round (1NT-2♦; 2♥-3♥ shows clubs, while 1NT-2♦; 2♥-3♠ shows diamonds). The hand with 4c♠ bid analogously. Since exactly invitational hands are rare there is something to be said for making the natural bids GF, saving bidding space on choice of game or slam try auctions. Alternatively, if you are willing to blast to game (or hide the major suit) with invitational balanced hands with exactly one 4cM, you can play transfers for 2NT and up after a rejected transfer into a 4cM.
  
• On several mini-Heeman auctions the wrong hand becomes declarer - notably 1NT-2♣; 2♦-3/4♥ (6(+) hearts, invitational resp. exactly GF no slam interest). One possible solution is to include invitational+ single-suited hands into the transfers, since opener will almost always reject the transfer. As an additional upside this now gives us a way to bid single-suited slam interest hands - if transfer then raise to 3 shows slam interest, the relay auction into a raise can show SI at the 3-level. Just keep in mind that this conflicts with the earlier shown coded game forcing 4M5m hands, if you decide to play those.

[DavidKok]

4. Transfer Extensions
Transfer extensions are a method where, over a standard Jacoby transfer, responder's second bid is another transfer (to at least a 4-card suit/notrump). They allow the partnership to have more descriptive sequences at the 3-level, at the cost of two specific auctions.
The two auctions lost are the natural calls directly above the Jacoby transfers - so 1NT-2♦*; 2♥-2♠ (standard: 4♠5♥ invitational NF) and 1NT-2♥*; 2♠-2NT (standard: 5♠332, invitational NF). As the link above explains, the default way of handling this with Transfer Extensions is to downgrade the invitational 4♠5♥ hands into Garbage Stayman, or upgrade them to game forcing, and bid them accordingly. The 5♠332 hand is shown through the artificial 'Spademan' sequence 1NT-2♣* (Stayman); 2♦*/2♥-2♠, showing exactly 5♠332 invitational NF (if partner shows 4(+) spades we raise/blast to game).

The corresponding start to a Jacoby transfer in mini-Heeman is the relay auction 1NT-2♣; 2♦ - showing responder's hearts - or 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♥; 2♠ showing spades. Despite the name 'transfer extensions' this convention does not apply after mini-Heeman transfers, but only after the relay. They can be incorporated in the same way as standard, and you can keep all followup treatments the same way as standard.

There are some small differences though - by taking some of the advice from the previous section, we already have other options for the 5M332 hand types (i.e. bid them through the transfer, reasoning that the 5-3 fit plays well in 2NT opposite a minimum, or use the artificial superaccept after 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♥; ?). Mini-Heeman with transfer extensions can therefore use the sequence 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♠ to show 4♠5♥ inv NF (since there is no need for a transfer to notrump), and play transfer extensions over 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♥; 2♠ without downside (depending on choice responder is never 5M332 or opener has shown a 2-card spade suit with a minimum so 5M332 invitational can downgrade and pass). Alternatively the bid 1NT-2♣; 2♦-2♠ can be used as an artificial bid, doubling up on sequences starting at the 3-level or showing a different hand type. Note that mini-Heeman is not compatible with Garbage Stayman, so downgrading invitational 4♠5♥ hands forces responder to transfer to hearts and give up on the spades.

Lastly the traditional approach to transfer extensions treats them as forcing to game, citing the value-showing bids on the 3-level as their main benefit. Personally I think there is room for making these extensions invitational+, letting opener bid 3M with a major suit fit, accept the transfer with a hand not very suitable for either suit and make a value-showing bid setting the minor suit as trumps otherwise. Alternatively you could use artificial or swapped responses to save bidding space (e.g. show min/max, with major suit fit/no major suit fit but excited for the minor suit/neither).

[DavidKok]

5. Good old college game tries

Bid game, then try to make it.

A relatively modern approach to game tries is 'do not'. Several partnerships feel that, opposite a notrump bid with a limited range, there is not much value to making a (semi)balanced invitational game try for 3NT, especially if this is further offset by telling the opponents whether to lead actively or passively, a major or a minor suit, or sometimes even which specific suit.

Extending this argument a bit further: if there is not much value to having such game tries, there is even less value in having multiple different game tries of this type for slightly different hands. In particular, having a 'values' game try (usually 2♠ or 2NT) along with 4cM balanced game tries (in mini-Heeman: transfer to the major suit, then bid 2NT) assigns a lot of bidding space to hand types that might not belong in 2NT at all.

If your partnership is willing to play 'Good old college game tries', where invitational balanced hands just blast to game (optionally via a major suit transfer, since that no longer leaks much information while finding 4-4 or 4-5 fits without issue), you can play artificial followups if opener rejects responder's transfer. One simple idea is to play 'transfer extensions' here as well, e.g. 1NT-2♦*; 2♥-2NT* shows 4♥5(+)♣. Alternatively the extra bid allows for reorganising the 4-4 major suit hands, or using 2NT as strong, an unspecified long minor (opener responds 3♦ holding clubs and 3♣ otherwise) while the direct 3m is invitational(/weak).


As always I look forward to all comments, feedback, thoughts and suggestions. These bonus segments are not essential to mini-Heeman, though I do think some of them will combine quite well. As mentioned before they are not as polished as the core idea so please keep the criticism constructive.