Isn't it fun when you pick up a juicy 26-pointer like this?
Well, actually, no, it's not much fun at all (unless you happen to be playing high-stakes rubber bridge)!; Standard methods don’t handle these big balanced hands very well.; The gradation of point-count ranges for big balanced hands goes something like this:
You can see that, for really big balanced hands, the real auction does not start until Opener rebids 3NT or 4NT. Now, tell me, how can you have an effective and constructive auction when you don't start mentioning suits until the 4-level?; As a way to mitigate this problem, there is a little gadget, called Kokish.
Basics
After 2 - 2
,
we use 2
as a relay to 2
. Now Opener
will either rebid 2NT (to show a BIG balanced hand) or else make any
other descriptive bid to show a hand with Hearts.
After 2 - 2
,
we use 2
as a relay to 2NT. Now Opener
will either rebid 3
to show Spades or 3
/
/
to shows Spades and the suit bid. If it is Hearts then that shows longer Spades than Hearts because they did not choose the Heart relay.
In other words, the Kokish Relay allows the bidding for really big, balanced hands to start at 2NT.
Some examples:
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2NT* |
* Opener has 25+ HCPs and a balanced hand.
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
3![]() |
Pass |
* Opener has Hearts and Clubs.
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
3![]() |
Opener has Hearts and no second suit.
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 2NT | Pass |
3![]() |
* Opener has Spades and no second suit.
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 2NT | Pass |
3![]() |
* Opener has Spades and Clubs.
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 2NT | Pass |
3![]() |
Pass |
* Opener has Spades and Hearts. [Longer Spades]
Follow-Up
For the balanced hands, the follow-up can be the same as your current methods for 2NT openings. The good news is that it's better to start the search for a fit at the level of 2NT that it is at 3NT or above. The bad news is that many partnerships do not have particularly effective 2NT methods!
AQT8
KQ6
AQ
AKQ6
6
A97
T932
T6542
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2NT | Pass | ? |
Responder does not have much of a hand, but, when
Opener is known to have 25+, he doesn't need much of a hand to
start thinking about slam!; How this auction proceeds will depend upon
your methods.; Some partnerships play that 3 here is a relay to 3NT,
after which Responder proceeds to show some kind of minor one-suiter or
minor two-suiter.; Anyway, hopefully your 2NT methods will allow you to
find 6
on this hand (which is cold on all 3-1 trump breaks when played
from the correct side) rather than 6NT (which requires a couple of
finesses)
Without Kokish, the auction would start with 2 - 2
- 3NT. Now, it would be hard to come up with a sensible auction which
investigates a minor suit fit.
By-Passing The Relay
We said that the sequence 2 - 2
- 2
is a relay to 2
, preparatory to
Opener further describing his hand.; Well, so it is.; But, once in a
while, Responder may have a sufficiently unusual hand to make it
worthwhile by-passing the relay and showing a long suit.; Of course,
doing this is crossing Opener's intentions, so we do not do it lightly,
we need a good reason.
One popular approach is to use transfers whenever
you break the relay. So, after 2 - 2
- 2
, a bid of 3
(breaking the relay)
would show Diamonds, as in the following example:
6
AKT976
AQ8
AKJ
T95
3
KJ97643
82
2![]() |
Pass | 2![]() |
Pass |
2![]() |
Pass | 3![]() |
Pass |
3![]() |
In the above auction:
How good or long a suit do you need to by-pass the
relay?; Obviously, the suit cannot be that good, otherwise
Responder would have made a positive response over 2. We suggest that
a decent 6-card suit with good fillers is probably enough. A reasonable
rule of thumb would be that the suit is playable for one loser opposite
Ax or Kx.