With my f2f partner I have lately been playing a variant. After 1NT - 2
- 2M then 3 of the other major sets M as trump and expresses interest in slam, but usually w/o a stiff. After which cue bids are available. If you have a stiff? 1NT - 2
- 2M - 4m shows a stiff in m and a fit for M.
Neither approach comes up all that often so the most important things are
A: 1NT - 2
- 2M - 4NT is a slam invit w/o a fit for M but holding for cards in the other major.
and
B: being on the same page as pard.
I agree that using BWS is a good approach. For most partnerships, there are much more basic things to work through. The example 1NT - 2
- 2
- 2S is certainly a good example. This is a good deal more frequent than the slam auction. Another example would be 1NT - 2
- 2
- 2
. That certainly sounds like a five card suit and presumably with four hearts as well else responder would simply have transferred. Sometimes responder is dealt this 5/4 shape with invitational values and sometimes he is dealt this shape with weak values. If 1NT - 2
- 2
- 2
is invitational then when the weak hand is held we have to just transfer to spades, forgetting about the hearts. Or, if 1NT - 2
- 2
- 2
is weak then we have a problem when we hold the invitational values. Here is BWS:
(d) Stayman (possibly a weak hand; opener bids hearts with both majors), followed by responder's bid of: (i) two hearts is weak (scrambling for a two-level contract with length in both majors); (ii) two spades is invitational; (iii) two notrump is invitational; (iv) three of a minor is natural and forcing; (v) three of a major is invitational if a direct raise, or Smolen (forcing; ostensibly four of the bid major and five of the other) if over two diamonds, or a slam-try in opener's shown major with an unspecified splinter if in the unbid major (then, the cheapest bid by opener is a relay and responder shows the short suit in steps: lowest-|middle-|highest-ranking possible short suit; if a step bid would be inappropriately nonforcing, the next available bid substitutes for it); (vi) four clubs is a key-card-ask if opener showed a major, otherwise shows four=six in the majors; (vii) four diamonds is a slam-try in opener's major with no short suit, otherwise shows six=four in the majors;
So, looking at (iii), we see 1NT - 2
- 2
- 2
is natural and invitational. This is my preference but I don't think it is universal, I have seen it played as weak. The problem with playing it as weak is that you are then really in a pickle with the invit hand. If you play 1NT - 2
- 2
- 2
as invit then,when weak, you might wish you could try to find the heart fit but then, without a heart response, still get out with 1NT - 2
- 2
- 2
being weak. You might wish you could do this, but you are in a lesser pickle, you simply forget hearts and transfer to spades.
Again it is simple to just go with BWS. We can have detailed discussions about this that and the other thing, or we can just go with BWS. I guess we could call this the "Shut up and deal" approach. This goes nicely with the MSC thread.
Btw, I found this online:
https://www.bridgeworld.com/indexphp.php?page=/pages/learn/learningcentermainpage.htmlI have not gone over it except a little but BWS has a bunch of lessons/quizzes. I had not seen these before. They might be too elementary but maybe not.