Montreal Relay - Jump Shift Response to an Opening Bid

A MODIFIED MONTREAL RELAY
Jump Shift Response to an Opening Bid

The Montreal Relay system has some flexibility in what you might like to do with responder's hand after an opening bid. Below are methods you might consider, but keep in mind that a fundamental tenet of good bridge is to have agreements for hands that have a high frequency of occurance.

Weak Jump Shift
Many bridge players in the United States are using weak jump shifts after an opening bid by their partner to show a 6-card suit with fewer than 6 points, although some partnerships use 6-8 points. It's not a bad treatment in some cases, especially if the opening bid is a minor and the jump response is a major, but it seems to be bad bridge to jump from a 1-level major to a 3-level minor just because the hand is weak. That said, a great many experts no longer play weak jump shifts. They occur with depressing regularity, too. (Weak jump shifts are not alertable in a competitive auction, but must be announced if the opponents are quiet.)

Strong Jump Shift
Long ago, in the golden era of Charles Goren, if your partner opened the bidding and you had 19 or more points you would jump in a new suit and watch your partner's eyes light up and his hands start to tremble. We don't use that method anymore. Besides, how often do you get that sort of hand?

Soloway Jump Shift
The late champion of bridge, Mr Paul Soloway, decided you could use the bid with fewer points and thereby have the chance to use it more often, so he advocated a minimum point-count of only 15 HCP. (Since then others have suggested different minimums. If you use Soloway Jumps you and your partner can decide.) He also suggested that the bid be limited to three types of hands:

A one-suited hand
A balanced hand with notrump distribution
A good 5-4 hand with the 4-card holding in partner's suit

When you are dealt a hand that qualifies for a Soloway Jump Shift it's wonderful! But darn it, they just don't happen very often.

6-8-10 Jump Shift
Another Agreement - A 6-card suit with 8-10 HCP
Intermediate value hands occur far more often than either of the two situations described above, so with that in mind, consider using this agreement...

A jump shift bid by responder is constructive and shows a good 6-card suit with 8-10 points (6-8-10)

Unless you are extremely aggressive that seems like a better idea than jumping to the 3-level with fewer than 6 points. This is the method I recommend because it is simple, constructive and occurs frequently. I would also recommend that this bid not be used with either a void or a singleton in opener's suit. However, you will have to decide if you want to use this in a competitive auction or not. To avoid complexity we use the same agreement whether or not the opponents are in the auction.

One Exception
If your partner opens 1

he may have only a singleton. For that reason we treat the jump raise to the 3-level the same as a jump-shift... Responder has 8-10 points and a 6-card club suit.

Double Jump Shift After a Minor Opening
Here's an interesting idea... Have you seen the popular agreement to use a jump in either major to show 5-5 in the two suits after a 1NT opening bid? Players agree that 3

is invitational and the 3

bid is forcing. This same treatment can be used when your partner opens either 1

or 1

A jump to 3 shows at least 5-5 in the majors with invitational values
A jump to 3 shows at least 5-5 in the majors with game-forcing values


	K J 9 7 2		A J 7 5 4
	Q T 9 4 3		K Q J 9 6

	9		9
	Q 7		Q 7