[blml] Is ordinary Stayman no longer artificial? [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[Gampas at aol.com]

In a message dated 05/12/2007 08:22:13 GMT Standard Time,  
jfusselman at gmail.com writes:

>It is not valid reasoning to say that a bid provides no  information
>about a hand simply because there is more than one category  of hands
>that can make the bid.
 
The problem is that almost all bids including all passes provide  
information, other than the last, penultimate and  antepenultimate passes in an auction 
that has been preceded by 7NT - Double  - Redouble. There are other bids which 
are essentially forced relays, but even  these contain some information. Those 
that play that, after a strong 2C,  responder invariably relays with 2D, are 
still conveying information with the  latter "Sorry, pard, I don't have enough 
to jump to 7NT opposite all possible 2C  openers."  
 
"Providing information" must therefore refer to bids that essentially give  
information about the hand rather than request information about the partner's  
hand or say nothing (such as forced relays). And common sense can usually be  
used to decide to which category a bid belongs.