Most people will recognize the title of the blog as a Muppet song. By Piero Umiliani. Indeed it is the song with the fewest different words that has reached the top ten in Britain, peaking at number eight. We aren't taking up too much space giving the full lyrics. And each verse is the same!
Mahna Mahna Do doo be-do-doMahna Mahna Do do-do do
Mahna Mahna Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do
What has this to do with bridge? Well, a hand on Tuesday intrigued me as only three of the ten pairs reached the normal contract of Four Hearts. Which should have been reached whether playing simple Stayman, puppet Stayman or muppet Stayman:
Nine of the ten pairs played in game, with only the Chairman, Ed Sanders playing with the treasurer, Kevin Robins, reaching slam as one of them was wearing his rose-coloured glasses. Liz and Andy Clery were the beneficiaries of this optimism and the resulting top helped them to a big 66%.
East invariably opened 2C (or sometimes a Benjy 2D) and rebid 2NT to show a balanced 23-24. Some play that 2C-2D-2H shows either hearts or a balanced 23-24 and this is known as Kokish. Partner relays with 2S and 2NT then shows the balanced 23-24. There are versions with reverse Kokish so that 2H shows 25+ or hearts. Or, as I do with some partners, an opening 2NT can show 23-24 balanced.
After East has shown the strong balanced hand, West should bid some form of Stayman, invariably 3C. Now East will usually bid a 5-card major and bid 3D with one ore more four-card majors. Then West should show four spades, often by bidding 3H, which is the "muppet" element of the convention. East will bid 3NT and now West can complete the description with 4H which East will pass. At our table, we played simple stayman and played in 4H by East, in theory the top spot. Ken Barnett led an eccentric jack of clubs, and your author won and knocked out the ace of hearts. Chantal Girardin won and shifted to a diamond, East won, drew the trumps and finessed the nine of clubs. Now a spade to the ace, was followed by cashing the other high club, crossing to the king of diamonds and discarding a spade on the last club. A spade to South's king forced him to concede a ruff and discard. South had a chance to shine by unblocking the king of spades under the ace to avoid the endplay. Of course the unblock only gains if partner has the queen and ten of spades. And it would lose if declarer had the queen of spades, an unlikely scenario.
There is another interesting line of play which is called an "intra-finesse". I might have led a spade to the nine and if it forced the king or queen, I could potentially pin the doubleton ten on the way back. If South plays the king or queen, you can play him for KT or QT doubleton and this is the right play in isolation in the spade suit.
