Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index In contract bridge, Puppet Stayman is a variation of the Stayman convention which serves two purposes: it allows the side to find a 5-3 fit when the notrump opener has a 5-card major. it allows the side to find a 4-4 fit without revealing unnecessary information about the notrump openers hand to the opponents. After 1NT by opener, responder starts by bidding 2 clubs just as in the standard Stayman convention. But the opener now responds 2 hearts or 2 spades only with a 5-card major. Otherwise the response to 2 Clubs is 2 Diamonds which says nothing about 4-card majors. After 1NT-2C-2D, responder then tells opener which 4-card major he is interested in, and opener can either raise or go back to NT. Responder tells opener he has a 4-card major by bidding the other major, thus 1NT-2C-2D-2H shows 4 spades and 1NT-2C-2D-2S shows 4 hearts. Responder can show both 4-card majors by 1NT-2C-2D-2NT. Here is a typical Puppet Stayman auction 1NT-2C-2D-2S-3NT. Note that opener has denied a 5-card major and has denied a 4-card heart suit by not raising hearts after responder bid 2S, but opener's bidding has not revealed anything about whether he has a 4-card spade suit as he would have had to do in a standard Stayman auction. This may be an advantage during the play in 3NT. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.