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1430 Relays

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One method of determining values is to simply ask for aces. In this method, after the shape relays, the next relay step is a values ask.  Before going any further, a brief discussion on relay steps.

There are two schools of thought on what should be a relay step here.  Responder's last bid is not known in general, and responder may even have zoomed, answering the first question (values).  Both schools agree that 3NT is an attempt to sign of and is not a relay, although with undisclosed extras (14⁺ points), responder can answer aces as though it were a relay step.  The first school of thought holds that, the relay step is always the cheapest available bid that is not any of: 3NT, 6NT, or a bid in one of responder's long suits.  Any of these three bids are to play, as are all bids that skip the relay step (with one exception, which I'll address later).  The second school says that 3NT is an attempt to signoff, and 4 tells responder to bid 4 as an end to the relay.  Opener will either pass 4 or make another bid, which is a signoff.  Again, with undisclosed extras, responder can refuse the 4 signoff and bid above 4, showing aces.  Note that this school only applies if 4 is available.  After aces are answered, the next step is always a relay and anything else is to play (again, with one exception to be addressed later).  The choice of which method to use is determined by partnership agreement.

Now that we know what defines a relay step, we can describe the answers to the relay questions.  The first question is a values ask, asking responder to show approximate strength. The response depends on responder's hand type.  With an unbalanced hand (a hand that did not initially bid 1), responder shows a minimum ( ≤ 13 points) with the first step and shows 14⁺ points by zooming to answer aces.  For balanced hands, we break up the range further and use multiple steps to show 8-10, 11-13, and 14⁺ points, again, a maximal response should zoom for aces.  Note that this question may have been answered as a zoom from the shape relay.  In that case, we proceed to the next question.

The 2^nd question, if opener wishes to continue the relays, is an ace ask.  Responder bids in steps showing 1-or-4, 0-or-3, or  2 (specific) aces.  If responder holds 2 aces, steps are used to show where these aces are.  To do this, responder orders suits by length, breaking ties in the usual > > > order.  The responses to the ace ask are as follows:

Since presumably opener has at least 1 ace, the responses for 2 aces will reveal the exact location of responder's aces.  After aces are answered, the next question is to ask for kings.  These are answered in the same way, but note that a king-ask does not guarantee holding all the aces.  After asking for kings, the next question is to ask for queens.  These are answered in the same way except that we do not relay for specific queens, but rather all 2-queen hands bid the 3rd step.

For each of these, any bid which is not a relay step (using your choice of school) is to play, with the following single exception.  If the response to the ace ask is the first step, showing 1 ace (or 4, but how likely is that?), then the second possible relay step is not to play, but asks for the location of the one ace.  Responder answers by again ordering suits by length with the usual rank order as a tiebreaker, and bidding steps to show the ace in the 1^st, 2^nd, etc. longest suit.  After this answer, opener can ask for kings as above.