Bridge Simulation: Simulatron #11, page 2

Responding to Notrump with Bad Hands — page 4

Whew! Mere mortals cannot be expected to retain all the information from analyses of more than 430,000 deals, so a friendly chart is in order. This one details SIM's suggested actions for each hand type:

HAND PATTERN		STRATEGY
4-3-3-3	All	Pass
4-4-3-2	4.4 majors 4.2 or 2.4 majors 4.3.2.4 or 3.4.2.4 4.3.4.2 or 3.4.4.2 4.4 minors	Garbage Stayman Xfer to the major w/ 0-2 ; else Pass (same) 2C, then Pass Pass
4-4-4-1	4.1 or 1.4 majors 4.4.1.4 4.4.4.1	Xfer to the major Garbage Stayman 2C, then Pass w/ 0-5 ; else Garbage Stayman
5-3-3-2	5-card major 5 clubs 2.3.5.3 or 3.2.5.3 3.3.5.2	Xfer to the major 3C exit w/ 0-2 ; else Pass 3D exit w/ 0-2 ; else Pass 3D exit w/ 0-3 ; else 2C, then Pass
5-4-2-2	2.2.4.5 2.2.5.4 4.2.x.x or 2.4.x.x 5.4.2.2 4.5.2.2	3C exit w/ 0-6 ; else Pass MSS/3D if available ; else 3D exit 2C -> 2M or 3m exit if available ; else minor exit Xfer to 2S Garbage Stayman
5-4-3-1	4.5.x.x 5.4.x.x 4.3.5.1 or 3.4.5.1 4.3.1.5 or 3.4.1.5 1.4.x.x or 4.1.x.x 3.1.4.5 or 1.3.4.5 3.1.5.4 or 1.3.5.4	Garbage Stayman Xfer to 2S 2C, then Pass Xfer to the 4-card major Xfer to the major 2C -> 3-card major or 3C if available ; else 3C exit 2C -> 2D/3-card-major or 3D if available ; else MSS/3D exit
5-4-4-0	0.4.4.5 0.4.5.4 4.0.4.5 4.0.5.4 4.4.0.5 4.4.5.0 4.5.x.x 5.4.x.x	2C -> 2D/2H or 3C [pass 2D only w/ 0-2] Xfer to 2H w/ 0-2 ; else MSS/3D exit Xfer to 2S w/ 3+ ; else MSS/3D exit xxx Garbage Stayman 2C, then Pass Garbage Stayman Xfer to 2S
5-5-x-x	Both majors One major Both minors	Garbage Stayman Xfer to the major 5-5 minor exit
6-3-x-x	Long major Long minor	Xfer to the major [game w/ 7+] Play in the minor
6-4-x-x	6-card major 4-card major No major	Xfer to the major [game w/ 5+] 2C -> 2M or 3m if available ; else minor exit Play in the long minor
6-5-x-x	5.6.x.x 6.5.x.x Both minors One major	Garbage Stayman Xfer to Spades 5-5 minor exit Xfer to the major
7-2-2-2	Long major Long minor	Xfer to the major [game w/ 5+] Play in the minor
7-3-x-x	Long major Long minor	Xfer to the major [game w/ 4+] Play in the minor
7-4-x-x	7-card Major 4-card major No major	Xfer to the major [game w/ 3+] 2C -> 2M or 3m if available ; else minor exit Play in the long minor
7-5-1-0	7-card major 5-card major Both minors	Xfer to Game in the long major Xfer to the major [game w/ 3+] Play in the long minor

So what have we actually learned? Most everyone follows at least these few rules:

Transfer to a 5+ major.
Exit in a 6+ minor.
Bid 2C, then Pass with a three-suiter including shortness in clubs.

We now know, however, that there is so much more to it than that. I believe that the computer's findings can be summarized with these guidelines:

SIM's Rules for Responding to Notrump with Bad Hands

Pass only balanced hands with 4-4 minors, a ~~5-card~~ minor with ~~3+ hcp,~~ or any ~~4-3-3-3.~~
Play in a 5-card major even with a longer minor.
Try for a 4-4 major fit even with a long minor.
Try for a 4-3 major fit with 3.3.5.2 and 4+ hcp, and unbalanced hands with no ~~6+ minor.~~
Avoid using a two-major or two-minor exit when the ~~higher-ranking~~ suit is longer.
Transfer to a 4-card major with 0-2 hcp and some ~~4-4-3-2~~ pattern that is short in the other major or short in diamonds.
Transfer to a 4-card major with some singleton and no 6+ minor, or with a ~~3-suiter~~ including a void major and ~~0-2~~ hcp.

Note that hands of fewer than three high-card points seem to fall into a special category. With such weak holdings, every effort should be made to get out of a notrump contract. That directive seems worth remembering.

Good luck with your new bidding system, which now includes Garbage Stayman and the ability to sign off in a minor after a ~~major-suit~~ enquiry. Of course, if you never pick up bad hands, or if your partner is not allowed to open ~~1NT,~~ then you might have decided just to continue wallowing in your existing methods.

Should someone actually wish to peruse the entire database of computer studies, here it is in Wordpad (RTF) format:

– SIM's Database Analyses of Weak-Hand Responses to Notrump –