Some weeks ago, I wrote about Romex Stayman over 2NT and promised a follow-up article about Romex Stayman over 1NT. Here it is.
The assumption is that you play a strong NT that may include a 5 card major. That is a good idea in general, consider the hand on the left.
If you open 1♥, you are in trouble over most responses by partner. Over, for example, 1♠, 1NT is an underbid, 2NT an overbid, 2♥ promises 6 and 2♣/♦ isn’t very attractive either. Opening 1NT solves your problem and you have sufficient room to find out about the 5 card major later. Romex-Stayman is such a method. There are more arguments, but that is beyond the scope of this article. Bottom line, if you open 1NT with a 5 card major, Romex Stayman is for you. If not, stop reading now.
As with regular Stayman, Romex Stayman asks for major suit lengths. The responses are different though:
1NT-2♣:
- •2♦: Not 4 or 5♥, or 5♠.
- •2♥: 4 or 5♥, not 4♠.
- •2♠: 5♠.
- •2NT/3♣: 4♥-4♠, minimum and maximum respectively.
A minimum is defined as any hand that would not accept a invitational 2NT bid from partner. Further bidding. There are a few things you have to learn. First, over a 2♦ or 2♥ response, 2♠ is a relay to find out more. Then, over 1NT-2♣-2NT/3♣, there are transfers to right-side the hand and get to the right level. Here is how this all works:
1NT-2♣-2♦:
- •2♥: Garbage Stayman, weak hand with both majors, partner corrects to ♠ if he feels that is a better contract.
- •2♠: Relay
- •2NT: 2 or 3♠, minimum
- •3♣: 2 or 3♠, maximum
- •3♠: 4♠, minimum
- •Other: 4♠, maximum, values in the suit bid
- •2NT and higher: whatever you play today.
1NT-2♣-2♥:
- •2♠: Relay
- •2NT: 4♥ only, and a minimum
- •3♣: 4♥ only, and a maximum
- •3♥: 5♥ and a minimum
- •Other: 5♥, a maximum and values in the suit bid
- •2NT and higher: whatever you play today.
1NT-2♣-2NT/3♣:
- • 3♦/♥: Transfer to 3♥/♠, responder then picks the contract. Note that there are no super-accepts in this situation, as responder may still have the garbage stayman variation. That is indeed a small disadvantage of this convention, you end up playing a level higher. But this is compensated by a double fit and you assume that they would bid over 2M anyway.
This is the basic convention, if you play regular Stayman, you can play this as a drop-in replacement. I have not discussed 3 level bids after 1NT-2♣-2X. That is intentional, you can simply continue to play this as you do today.
It may appear that after 1NT-2♣ and some of the follow-up actions, responder cannot always bid an invitational 2NT. That is correct. However, if you closer, opener will bid at most 2NT with a minimum and responder can simply that. With a maximum, opener may bid higher but then we’d never play 2NT anyway.
Do I play more with my regular partners? Yes, a lot. I’ve made a pdf of the system notes that I use with Gerrit Matser. Click here for 1NT-2♣ and click here for 2NT-3♣. Notes are in Dutch, use at your own risk.