I have played all 3 methods in a 4 card major context. As a beginner I learned not to include 5M332 ever. Later I started including some 5M332 hands and now I pretty much open any 5332 hand in range with 1NT. I have also sometimes played a 5 card major system where there is absolutely no rebid whatsoever after a 1M opening with a 5332 hand so these have to be opened 1NT if in range.
hirowla, on 2012-April-08, 05:03, said:
If you don't ever:
- How do you deal with weak balanced hands with a 5-card major (say, 5♥, 12 points and 5-3-3-2 shape)? What do you do if your (very) helpful partner decides to bid 1♠ back at you? What does your partner think you have when you bid 2♥? Same with any similar hands.
In this style 2M is simply a bucket response denying the ability to rebid anything more helpful. If partner responds 1
♠ then you do have the option to raise to 2
♠ if you have 3 of them and it is a part of your agreements.
hirowla, on 2012-April-08, 05:03, said:
If you do always:
- How do you extract any 5-3 major suit fits? Do you care about them?
- If you care about them, how do you fit them into your (and my) NT bidding structure? My current structure involves garbage stayman, and 3-way transfers (2♠ is either minor)? Can you still extract 4-4 major suit fits easily?
- Does it have any flow-on effects to the rest of your system? One thing I can think of is playing Bergen raises (which we do) you may end up in 1NT (and probably having opponents intervene) when you could be at 3 of your major because you couldn't see your 5-4 fit quickly enough.
There are 2 ways of handling 5-3 fits - either you include some sort of checkback for 5 card majors (usually based on Puppet Stayman) or you simply ignore them. Again I have played both ways with a preference for including Puppet. Even without I think it is advantageous to the rest of your system to open these hands 1NT most of the time though. If you do include Puppet there are 2 mainstream methods, either using a 3
♣ response for this or using the traditional 2
♣ response. The latter means giving up on Crawling Stayman while the former finds fewer fits (because it requires a GF hand).
Opening 1NT tends to bury fits for both sides much more than opening 1 of a suit. This is true for any range. Usually opening a weak NT leaves you better placed than the opponents in the ensuing part-score battle but certainly not always. One of the qualities necessary for playing the style is to be able to live with the odd bad, or even very bad, result. If you cannot then it is (probably) better to play a 14-16 range and get enhanced constructive bidding in other auctions.
hirowla, on 2012-April-08, 05:03, said:
If you do sometimes:
- What is your criteria for deciding when you do and when you don't?
- As punishment for your ambiguity, can you answer both sets of questions above?
If you look at the first answer you will see I mentioned the possibility of rebidding 2
♠ with a 3532 or 3523 hand after 1
♥ - 1
♠. Of course you can also rebid 3
♥ after 1
♠ - 2
♥ with 5332 or 5323. When I played this style I opened 1NT with 2533 and 5233 and 1M otherwise. I think this is a natural progression for a beginner to try out before committing to the "always" approach.
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