[pescetom]

Vampyr, on 2022-August-01, 13:39, said:

There are other uses for 4!C. Ours is pick a major. South African Texas is interesting, though, because it leaves 4!h and 4!s idle. Maybe for minor-suit slam tries.

Or just use 4♥ to ask for Aces

I've never tried playing SA Texas, but if it went quickly out of fashion I imagine there is a reason.
Bidding 4♣ to show hearts offers LHO a wealth of calls to explain his hand.

[DavidKok]

Vampyr, on 2022-August-01, 13:39, said:

There are other uses for 4!C. Ours is pick a major. South African Texas is interesting, though, because it leaves 4!h and 4!s idle. Maybe for minor-suit slam tries.

This is how I play them. The major suit transfers have an extra step for positive hands, the minor suit transfers have two extra steps (two different types of positives). With both minors we bid 3♠, so all of these are one-suiters.

[Tramticket]

pescetom, on 2022-August-01, 15:13, said:

Bidding 4♣ to show hearts offers LHO a wealth of calls to explain his hand.

After (2NT)-Pass-(4C), they might be able to double, but they could double 4D, playing Texas. The only extra call available to the opponents is 4D. Partner opened 2NT and we are often looking for slam. How often will our opponents be "explaining their hands" by bidding a suit at the four level? Good luck to them.

[pescetom]

Tramticket, on 2022-August-02, 00:16, said:

Partner opened 2NT and we are often looking for slam.

SA is usually on after 1NT also, which is a more frequent situation than 2NT and one in which it is easier for opponents to compete.

Tramticket, on 2022-August-02, 00:16, said:

The only extra call available to the opponents is 4D.

Fair enough, so they don't gain much over the SA hearts transfer.
But over the SA spades transfer they get a diamonds double rather than hearts double and they regain the natural 4♥ bid which Texas preempts.
Plus of course the opportunity for partner to double any like/dislike step bid by opener.
I've never tried playing SA transfers (or even defending them) so I'll take your word if all this is no issue in practice.

[Tramticket]

pescetom, on 2022-August-02, 14:57, said:

SA is usually on after 1NT also

Responding to 1NT is very different to 2NT. We play a weak NT and the points will often be evenly split between opener and responder. We prefer to play 1NT-4H and 1NT-4S as natural, allowing us to choose to make opener declarer (Jacoby transfer) or responder declarer (natural 4H/4S response), based on the nature of our holdings and tenaces held.

[mycroft]

This is why I play SATexas - 1NT-4♥ "She wants to play 4♥", but also 1NT-4♣ "She wants me to play 4♥".

A benefit of SATexas over 2NT is that you can gap-superaccept (don't recommend it with weak 1NT; too many times it becomes "If I wanted to play it I would have, partner" vs actually having slam interest); sure if you're wrong, the big hand is on the table, but you can usually survive that reasonably well with 20 opposite a couple of cards; if those "couple of cards" is 6 hearts to the 9 and an ace and a king, you might be golden.

Obviously, a demerit of SATexas over 2NT is "I never want to play 4M", so the 1NT meaning doesn't make sense. Yes, "mild slam try in relative minor" seems sensible (to go along with 3♠ then 4x being a serious slam try). We don't play that - we'd rather keep it as the "never bid" meaning, because nothing comes up often enough to have one meaning over 1NT and one over 2NT be worth more than the cost if either forgets.

Of course, the biggest benefit of SATexas is that partner can't Gerber (not that I'd play SATexas with anyone I wouldn't trust to bid G. only with the right hands. Not here, anyway).

[akwoo]

I prefer SATexas over 1N (12-14 or 10-12) but regular Texas over a natural 2N. I haven't had a problem with forgets since it's clear why we play it that way.