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.