Thursday, January 04, 2007 5:59 PM

Kokish Relay – Clubs

PITBULLS:

As we were getting tired of losing the diamond suit with balanced hands & strong 2♣ openers , we have now reverted to a Goren style 2♦ opener. Open 2♦ first & then bidding 2NT has the advantage of showing your HCP range and your diamond suit early. What about balanced hands with the club suit ? There is a fix with these hands. If you play the Kokish relay

( 2♣-P-2♦-P

2♥-P-2♠-P

2NT ) to show the flat 25-27 hands at the two level , you do not need a leap to 3NT anymore. Paul Soloway says use this bid to show the balanced club hands. You would be surprised on how handy this bid really is.

Here is a hand from the Bermuda Bowl held by Soloway. ♠Kx ♥Ax ♦AQJ ♣AQJ9xx . Soloway opened 2♣ and partner bid 2♦ so he leapt to 3NT which shows a balanced hand with a club suit. Over 3NT , Stayman is silly as the 3NT bid is usually 6-3-2-2 or 5-3-3-2 or even 7-2-2-2. 4♣ by responder is a slam try and sets the suit. 4♦ by the opener is of course Kickback.

Anyway partner held ♠xxxxxx ♥xx ♦Kx ♣K10x and passed 3NT. At the other table they rebid 2NT and they made a Texas transfer to the spade suit. This was not a success and Soloway won 12 IMPS . The club suit gets buried by 2NT rebids. “Freeing” clubs in this manner helps with getting to club slams or the correct game.