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 Stayman "The Dark Side" by Marti Ronemus

There are certain animals we expect to be dangerous, and we meet and treat them with respect and caution. But then -- there are the animals with a surprising dark side.

What could be more adorable and more a symbol of sweetness than the Koala Bear. Well, guess again, folks. They are surprisingly aggressive and have a vicious bite. Just ask Mary Ann Forster, who when protecting her two small dogs from a crazed Koala, was bitten so badly that it took emergency responders to remove it.

And what about Dolphins? The clowns of the ocean? Those of us raised on "Flipper" can only be horrified by the behavior of dolphins. Male dolphins are known for slaughtering other dolphins, and there is filmed evidence of them playing Dolphin Volleyball with baby sharks.

And we know just how those baby sharks feel when we are attacked by advance players, don't we? Ouch!

Today for our quiz we're going to explore an innovation in our game that, believe it or not, people resisted initially... Stayman!! My goodness, most of us can't imagine how people bid accurately without it. And using it properly will help protect us from Dolphins.



Question 1

  Your Hand
 10 2
 A J 8 7
 9 6
 K J 10 5 4
 
Q: 1 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpp
2p2P
?


 Your choice:
A: 4: We ask Pard if he has a four-card major and he has Hearts with us. Fantastic! Should we bid our Clubs? You can't be serious. Should we invite or go to game? With distribution we've got game-going values IF we play in a trump suit.

Your result so far:
Open Question

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Question 2

  Your Hand
 10 2
 A J 8 7
 9 6
 K J 10 5 4
 
Q: 2 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpp
2p2P
?


 Your choice:
A: 2 No-trump: No point bidding our Hearts. Pard denied holding them. No point bidding the Clubs. They will be useful in No-trump. Our real decision is between 2 No-trump and 3 No-trump. Some would bid 3 No-trump because of the fifth Club. Give yourself credit if you bid that. Why did we choose 2 No-trump? We have two naked suits and we aren't crazy about the rest of the hand. Why not invite?

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 Q 10 8 7
 K J 10 9 4
 A 8
 5 4
 
Q: 3 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpp
?


 Your choice:
A: 2: This one often stumps less experienced players. Here's how you handle it. We begin with Stayman. If Pard bids either major, we've got our fit and either invite or go to game. With this hand, we'd go to game.
If Pard bids 2, denying a major, we then bid our five-card suit, and Pard will compute that we've got 5-4. Now he'll know what to do. Or we hope he will.
Down the road, there's a nifty little trick called Smolen that ensures Pard names the 5-card suit first. For now, just master this much.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 5 4 3 2
 9 8 7 6
 6 5 4 3 2
 
 
Q: 4 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpp
?


 Your choice:
A: 2: What you really want to do is Pass and go hide in the restroom. BUT!! Stop and think: this hand isn't as useless as it looks at first. Our void is actually an asset. This BTW, is called Trash Stayman. We are going to bid 2, and no matter what Pard bids, we are passing. If he bids Diamonds for denial, he's got to have three Diamonds, right? If he bids either major, our void is helpful. Just don't leave the poor guy in No-trump. The Dolphins will get him.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 K Q J 9
 A J 9
 K J 4
 Q J 8
 
Q: 5 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 NTPass
?


 Your choice:
A: 6 No-trump: You've got 18 pts. The least the partnership has is 33. The most, 35. That is slam. Next question: Should we use Stayman first? No. Why? The reason we like to play in a suit is so we can trump in the dummy. We have no shortness. Should we ask for aces? You can if you want, so give yourself part credit if you bid 4, Gerber asking for aces over No-trump.

And now, let's play a hand.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

Overall Results

Your results:   out of    Average: 

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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