Puppet Stayman Over 1NT
Should the 1NT - 2 !c sequence be alerted if it shows Puppet Stayman, or is it announced? I found other threads here about Puppet Stayman over 2NT, which seem to suggest it should be alerted.
Should the continuations also be alerted? For example 1NT - 2 !c - 2 !h promises 5 hearts by opener, not 4 as in normal Stayman. This might be unexpected for opponents unfamiliar with Puppet Stayman. Other continuations could lead to even more alerts.
Comments
Yes it should - see Blue Book 4 H 1
"Because they are not natural, players must alert (unless excepted by 4B4 above):
(a) Stayman and transfers, except when announceable (see 4 E). For example:
....
(4) Five card Stayman or Puppet Stayman
4B4 only applies above 3NT so that doesn't affect things
4E2 specifically says only announce Stayman when asking for a 4-card Major (not a 5-card one)
"4 E 2 A Stayman 2C bid is announced, but only in response to a natural 1NT opening where there has been no intervention; and only where it is used to ask for a four card major"
Peter Bushby Suffolk
1N-2C and 2N-3C are announced as stayman if the immediate rebids by opener show/deny 4 card majors.
If opener's immediate rebids show something else (e.g. 5-card majors) then the response should be alerted.
If opponents have not asked about the alert of 2C and if the opponents do not understand the significance of an alert rather than an announcement then the fact that the responses show 5-card suits could be unexpected and should be alerted.
The points above have clarified that 2!c/3!c Puppet Stayman is alertable. It should be explained by reference to what the bid is doing, e.g. "asking for a 5-card major" or "Puppet Stayman, asking for a 5-card major".
To cover the replies, too: a 2!d/3!d response is almost always going to be alertable whether or not it says something specific about the majors (because it isn't saying anything about diamonds). A response in a major to show 5 of that suit is not alertable (because it's natural, and because the length is expected in the context of your partner just having asked for 5-card majors). A 2NT/3NT response is less obvious; I'm inclined to think it's not alertable if it denies a 5-card major and says nothing else, but is alertable in the more common case where it carries a specific message about major suit length.
For more complex variants, I think the most sensible thing to do would be to alert and (when asked) explain as, e.g., "asking for more information on the majors, but the responses are different from Stayman", and then alert any response.
I'm not sure that's right.
AFAIK, The alerting rules do not change dependent on whether opponents have enquired about the meaning of a previously alerted bid (or indeed any previous bid). Hence all responses to a 5-card / puppet Stayman bid should be alerted as they all carry specific information.
Also, my understanding was that Puppet referred to the fact that after a 2D/3D response, player bids the (4 card) major they haven't got, whereas the fact you are initially asking for a 5 card major makes it 5-card Stayman. It is perfectly possibly to play non-puppet 5-card Stayman, and (probably) puppet 4 card Stayman. To refer to 5 card Stayman as puppet Stayman is, I believe, misleading.
The opponents having heard an explanation of an earlier call will affect the potentiality of the meaning of a later call to be unexpected.
I agree. The general message is don't use names for conventions - the opponents may not understand the words the way you do.
"Carry[ing] specific information" isn't a reason to alert a call, though. For bids, the only reasons to alert are 4B1a) not being natural, or 4B1b) being natural but with a potentially unexpected meaning. The "I have a 5-card major" bid in that major is natural (4C1a: it shows at least 4 cards in the suit bid and does not show any suit), so the only question is about whether it's potentially unexpected for it to show 5 cards, and I don't think it is. If an auction starts 1NT, 2C!; 2H, with the 2C alerted and not asked about, then what does the 2H mean? It wasn't alerted, but the 2C was (implying that the 2C is not Stayman). So it must be a natural heart bid, and yet responder didn't ask for 4-card majors (that would have been announced rather than alerted). This doesn't outright prove that it's showing 5 hearts, but that meaning is surely not unexpected in that context.
In a similar situation, one could have (1D) - 1NT - (p) - 2C!. The 2C is alerted whether it's normal Stayman or some other flavour of Stayman. A 2H bid could then have the potentially unexpected meaning of showing five hearts.
I accept ais523's logic but would prefer that 2H be alerted in the original sequence. Then again, in most of Acol-land, I'd like to see five-card majors opening bids be alerted or at least pre-announced.