Wednesday, June 08, 2005 11:40 PM

Breaking Relays

Pitbulls:

Relays are giving orders to partner to take a mechanical action and bid the next higher ranking suit. What if partner “breaks” the relay and not do what she is told ? A common occurrence of breaking relays is after doubling a weak 2 bid. Partner bids 2NT as a relay to 3♣ but you break the relay by bidding something else. You have told partner you are too strong too accept the relay. This is the most common reason for not following orders. The “good bad 2NT” is another time you break the relay with extra strength.

If you play two way New Minor Forcing you are allowed to break the 2♣ relay in only one sequence. You have 3 card support for partners major and a maximum. Otherwise you are required to bid 2♦ as ordered by partner. Tom and I play a strong jump shift to 3♣ as a relay to 3♦. You are allowed to break the relay in only one instance. You have a limit raise in partners major so you can give partner immediate preference to show that kind of hand and keep the bidding at a low level. This fits in nicely with the scheme of things.

Relays are handy tools to show variable range 5-5 and 6-4 hands. What if you break the relay on those sequences ? If you have decent support for partners major or a tremendous hand for partners minor you can break the relay. 1♠-P-1NT-P 2♦-P-2NT-P 3♣-P-3♠ You chose to break the relay because you want to make one last try at a spade game. If you break this relay with 3♥ , it is a Q bid with huge diamond support and signing off in 3♦ seems unpalatable . Breaking the relay is a “Last Train” game try so to speak.

5-4-3-1 good hands are hard to describe after a forcing 1NT response without the relay inference. You now bid your minor and partner bids 2NT. If you make a relay of 3♣ forcing a 3♦ bid you can now “pattern out” and bid the 3 card major as a forward going descriptive bid. Axxxx x AQJx KQx 1♠-P-1NT-P 2♦-P-2NT-P 3♣-P-3♦-P 3♥-P- shows the tough to show 5-4-3-1 . If you had Axxxx KQx AQJx x you can just bid 3♥ naturally to pattern out and not bother with the relay.

Lets try an auction. You have x AKxxx Kxxx AKx so you open 1♥ and partner bids a forcing NT. You bid 2♦ and partner bids 2NT. You bid 3♣ as a relay to 3♦ and you now bid 3♠ which shows your 5-4-3-1 pattern with a stiff spade. Partner holds 10xx Qx AQx QJ109x and knowing you have a 16 HCP hand with a stiff spade leaps to 6♣ and +1370.