Normally Stayman is used after a player has opened 2NT and their partner
holds at
least one four-card Major with enough points to go to game but some players like to open 2NT with a 5 card
Major. So how do you ask what they have got when you have 3 and /or 4 card Majors in the responding hand.
When Partner opens 2NT bid 3 ♣ Stayman After a 3 ♦ response a re-bid of 3NT signs off,
not having found a 5/3 fit in a Major. After a 3 ♦ response a re-bid of 3 ♥
shows 4 Hearts and at that point doesnt deny 4 Spades. There is one other useful little addition to this; if you are playing transfers and Partner opens 2NT and
you have 5 of one Major and 4 of the other how do you bid-. If the 5 card suit is Hearts you simply transfer
to Hearts ( by bidding 3 ♦) and then bid 3 ♠ You make a 3 ♦ response to your 3 ♣ enquiry mean that opener may have a 4 card Major but
if not they will definitely have 3 Spades.
Remember if Opener has a 5 card Major they will have a Doubleton somewhere so it may be better to play in a 5-3 fit than 3NT
A 3 ♦ response denies a 5 card Major and a bid of 3 ♥ or 3♠ would show a 5 card suit.
Responder now bids as follows:
Opener will now bid 4 ♥ or 3 ♠ denying 4 Hearts but showing 4 Spades.
Straightforward but what if you have 5 Spades and 4 Hearts?
You could use ordinary Stayman and bid 4 Spades after a denial (very risky) or Transfer to 3 Spades and
rebid 4 Hearts but there are obvious risks; Opener may have 3 Hearts and 2 Spades.
There is a way to overcome this.
The bidding is as above except that a direct response to the 3 ♣ enquiry of 3NT denies everything
including 3 Spades. Unfortuneately you have to alert this
(partnership understanding) with the obvious danger of doing so, although most of the time defenders dont ask.
But the advantage is that when responder bids 3 ♥ Opener bids 3♠ to show 4 and 3NT denying 4 but guaranteeing 3 and allows responder to safely convert to 4 ♠