[arunodoysa]

Hi All,

I have a question assuming players follow Lebensohl and hence, assuming players prefer to use Lebensohl cue bid stayman. Say, N opens 1NT, E replies 2C (natural hand reply, could be 6/7 C)


S has 4 card of a major eg. H (or S) and 2/3 cards C with a stopper and say a 2/3 card of the second major. How should S proceed?

1. if S bids 2NT invoking Lebensohl, N has to relay bid 3C which takes up his cue bidding space
2. if S bids 3C invokings cue bid stayman, S denies stopper in C (Fast denies rule) although S actually has a stopper. Now if N does not have 4 card in H (or S), N might be in dilemma to call 3NT as N has no info that S actually has a stopper.

Note that if the opponent's bid was anything else then 2C, it would be an easy stayman cue bid.

Would appreciate a bidding method for this corner case. Thanks in advance!

[Stephen Tu]

Natural 2c interference is exceedingly rare these days. But in any case, a large number of players play double of 2c as stayman (or alternately negative allowing opener to pass with strong clubs), so you have potentially 2 ways to bid stayman (double or 3c), one of them (probably 3c) can deny a stopper. As for Lebensohl stopper implications, you don't really get them when the suit is clubs and you use stayman, since you don't have 2nt followed by cue bid at the 3 level available, if you aren't going to utilize double of 2c.

[TylerE]

Systems on over 2♣ interference. X is Stayman. No Leb. No need, they haven't actually taken away any bidding space. Why go a level higher?

[smerriman]

Normally when playing lebensohl, it only applies for overcalls of 2♦ - 2♠; over a 2♣ overcall, you can just play "systems on" with double = Stayman.

[Vampyr]

smerriman, on 2020-December-02, 19:30, said:

Normally when playing lebensohl, it only applies for overcalls of 2♦ - 2♠; over a 2♣ overcall, you can just play "systems on" with double = Stayman.

But if you want to have a “slow” sequence, you can agree that 3♦ is Stayman after Lebensohl. You don’t really need a third way to bid diamonds.

[Zelandakh]

Vampyr, on 2020-December-03, 04:19, said:

But if you want to have a “slow” sequence, you can agree that 3♦ is Stayman after Lebensohl. You don’t really need a third way to bid diamonds.

Alternatively, switch to Rubensohl so that 2NT becomes the Stayman call and now 3♣ from Opener denies a stop with direct 3M calls showing that major with a stop. As others have written though, it is much simpler just to play system on with X as Stayman.