A numerical study of an application of magnetorheological (MR) damper for semi-active control is presented in this paper. The damper is mounted in the suspension of a Duffing oscillator with an attached pendulum. The MR damper with properties modelled by a hysteretic loop, is applied in order to control of the system response. Two methods for the dynamics control in the closed-loop algorithm based on the amplitude and velocity of the pendulum and the impulse on-off activation of MR damper are proposed. These concepts allow the system maintaining on a desirable attractor or, if necessary, to change a position from one attractor to another. Additionally, the detailed bifurcation analysis of the influence of MR damping on the number of periodic solutions and their stability is shown by continuation method. The influence of MR damping on the chaotic behavior is studied, as well.