Last time, I discussed extending the 2S response to 1NT to cover 5-5 minor hands, weak or strong. What if you don't play this gadget? The simplest approach is to pass or raise to 2NT or 3NT depending on your high card strength, as if you had a balanced hand. The weaker you are in the majors, the stronger partner is likely to be, and partner is apt to be able to use one of your suits for some tricks.
With a very weak hand, pick your better minor and bid 2S or whatever device you have to stop at three of a minor. Of course you'll guess wrong and land in a 5-2 fit part of the time, but odds are better than 50% partner will have 3+ in whichever suit you pick, and a hand with, say, 0-2 hcp won't do partner much good at 1NT. I would pass 1NT with as little as 3 hcp since we may well have 20.
With a hand strong enough to contemplate slam, say 14+ hcp, remember that Stayman-then-3-of-a-suit is forcing. Bid 2C, then 3D, then 4C. Best to discuss this first; without discussion, stick to notrump.
Playing four-suited transfers, it is common to agree that a transfer to a minor, followed by a new suit, shows a singleton. So, with 5-5 minors and 10+, transfer to diamonds and then bid 3H or 3S to show your singleton. Opener should allow for the 5-5 hand and not insist on diamonds if he can't stop your singleton and has more clubs than diamonds: 1NT-2NT (transfer to diamonds)-3D-3H (singleton heart), opener with
KQxx Jxx Kx AKxx bids 4C, allowing responder to pass or correct to 4D, 5C, or 5D.
A popular agreement is that all three level jumps show 5-5 in the majors or minors, so 3C is 5-5 weak and 3D is 5-5 strong. This works fine when it comes up but it's very inefficient to tie up an entire response for a single rare shape and narrow range of strength. Those jumps are important for slam hands, which I'll discuss another time.
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