Monday, July 10, 2006 3:47 AM
Hand Evaluation – Tactics ( Breaking Relays )
PITBULLS:
Relays are a hand evaluation concept. We are familiar
with relays due to Lebensohl which is a simple Bridge relay. Associated with
relays is the concept of “breaking the
relay”. This too has a bidding
advantage to describe your hand. You must have a reason to not follow orders in
Bridge bidding. Experts have had a multi purpose 3♣
jump shift for years. They knew the limitations of Goren bidding which wastes bidding room to show
HCP’s thus pre-empting
partner from intelligent decision making. What is new to the bid is the relay by responder to effectively “get out of the way” so
opener can describe her true hand still at the 3 level. The relay is
an important part of the multi 3♣
strong jump shift.
Breaking relays allows a partnership to
provide still more information.
In normal Lebensohl auctions ,
you break the relay when you have
a good reason to do so . In these auctions , if you break the relay you have a huge hand & do not want the auction to die. This understanding is basic in all relays but there is one more
good reason to break a relay. If you feel that it is more beneficial to give information rather than receive
information. One purpose of a relay is
to suspend bidding until partner
describes her hand. What if you do
not want to hear what partner has to say ? You just
want to describe your hand
. This action should only done on exceptional circumstances. You have an
exceptional one suiter or two suiter
or a huge fit for partners first suit.
You might also anticipate what the strong jump shift will be
, break the relay so you get your
suit into the fray.
Here
is an auction from the Bermuda Bowl where the participants butchered the
auction. One pair got to 4♥ & the other got
to 6♣ !! In first seat both pairs passed ( 1
quick trick ) with ♠Kxxxx ♥Q1098x ♦Kx ♣K . Partner opens 1♦ with ♠void ♥AKx ♦AQ109x ♣AQ10xx , you respond a spade.
Let’s see if we can do better. Partner bids 3♣ ( multi
– purpose ) so you are supposed to take the relay to 3♦. Rules ( relays) are made to be
broken. As a passed
hand , why
not describe your two suiter
to
partner ? You bid 3♥ so you show a maximum
passed hand with two suits by not
following orders. . Partner bids
4NT with the last bid suit as the agreed suit & you bid 5♦. 5♥ would be to play
with a zero response, so partner bids 5♠ as the queen ask. You bid your lowest ranking king
saying you have the queen of trump - 6♣. Partner now bids 6♦ asking for the diamond
King , you bid 7♥. This is cold.
A
hand came up tonight that shows the power of “breaking relays”. The opener had ♠AKJxxxx ♥KJx ♦Q10 ♣A & opens
1♠ . Partner bids a forcing NT so you bid the multi purpose 3♣ . Partner breaks the relay to 3♥ with ♠xx ♥ AQ109x ♦KJxx ♣xx . You bid 3♠, partner bids 4♦ so you reach 6♥ instead of 6♠ Your decision is worth 17 IMPS as 6♠ goes one down
(spades were 3-1 queen offside).
Contrast this with the Goren auction. 1♠-P-1NT-P
4♠-P-P-P
Breaking
relays must be done with exceptional hands.
Bids like reverses have a high range from an Ace above an opener to just under
a 2♣ opener. A Lebensohl bid over a reverse is
basically a question. Do you have an exceptional reverse or not
? If your reverse is not exceptional , you just take the relay. Tom Gandolfo had ♠KQxx ♥AKJ10x ♦Q ♣Axx & opened 1♥. His partner bid 1NT
so Tom reversed to 2♠. Partner bid 2NT Lebensohl to ask the question. Now hand evaluation comes
into play . Is this hand so strong that we can force
to game possibly in 5 of a minor ? Breaking the relay
obviously shows slam interest with a maximum
reverse. Tom used hand evaluation & just accepted the relay as he
discounted his stiff ♦Q & felt he just
had a normal 17 HCP reverse .
Most experts would agree with
him. Same HCP’s & replace the ♦Q with the ♣Q , we would break the relay to 3♥. ♠KQxx ♥AKJ10x ♦x ♣AQx
Relays
have a psychological
effect on some players. They conjure up some fears that it is
quantum physics so beyond their comprehension. There
is nothing to fear but fear itself. Relays are exactly a simple expert tool so very useful. Relays
enrich the language of bidding.