[jdonn]

FrancesHinden, on Apr 1 2007, 01:40 PM, said:

Al_U_Card, on Mar 30 2007, 01:59 PM, said:

One question is, is 2♠ forced?  (Or only a relay by a weak hand.)

The non-helpful answer to your question is not to play a convention (the artificial 2H rebid here) without discussing the continuations.

There are various possible continuations after 2H "Kokish", the one I have seen most often is to play 2NT/3C/3D as transfers, showing a good suit (usually KQJxxx or even possibly with the 10 as well) and 3H as showing more or less any 5-spades, as partner's most likely hand type is strong balanced (to right-side a spade contract). As opener could have a monster hand with hearts, you usually want to let opener continue describing their hand, not break yourself unless you have something special to show.

It's not so much a matter of defining whether responder can break the relay or even what responder's bids mean. It's deciding how opener can still show his different possible hands over that. That was essentially the cause of the misunderstanding on the actual hand.

It would be ok to play Kokish without discussing if breaking the relay is allowed, but then neither partner should break the relay!

[Apollo81]

I blame the 3♣ bid...if no one knows what breaking the relay means then dont break it!

[whereagles]

Well, you can try that rule that says "any undiscussed bid is natural"

[Winstonm]

Jlall, on Mar 31 2007, 05:41 PM, said:

2C-3C-7N

This, to me, is the most sane auction. Life is too short to wait around for more than 2 of the top 3 to make a postive.

[Fluffy]

2♣-2♦ is systemic you can't argue with it.

If horth had bid 2NT instead of 2♥ they would still have an easy way to 7.

[Al_U_Card]

The only thought by the 2♦ hand was, if the 2♣ hand is big and balanced, it can have a 5 card ♠ suit. If the 2♠ relay is used......the weak hand will declare. If 6 or 7 ♣ is right then the big hand will play it no matter....but definitely using the relay avoids any confusion, the big hand rebids 2NT and then the weak hand bids 3S as MSS and we end up wherever the big hand wants to go.....