Game Tries

I was reviewing my system notes for what I play with Elwood, and it occurred to me I hadn't mentioned game tries.

These days, it seems like the “default” game try is what is known as a help-suit try. I have to say I have been distinctly unimpressed by this concept, and generally just don't understand them. When I was learning to play, 40-odd years ago, people used long-suit tries or short-suit tries. In either case, you weren't asking for help: you were describing your distribution, and hoping that the additional information assisted partner in re-evaluating his hand. Help-suit tries seem to me to fail to convey any useful information, and how Responder is supposed to judge what is “help” seems (at best) murky.

With that little rant out of the way, I can confess that I do play some game tries with Elwood, but it's a scheme he produced which he calls modified Kokish game tries. To the cognoscenti, that should ring alarm bells, because as well-known a theorist as Kokish is, he is also well-known for producing some of the most complicated schemes you'll find anywhere. (If you don't believe me, check out his “simple” defence to the Multi – it runs about ten dense pages!) But what Elwood put forward is not too bad.

The cunning ploy at the heart of the scheme is that (after a major-suit opening and simple raise) the next step bid is a relay asking Responder to name the cheapest suit in which he would have accepted a help-suit game try. If Responder retreats to 3M (declining all tries) or jumps to 4M (accepting all tries), Opener's hand remains concealed. This also leaves other bids free: there is room for short-suit tries, and also to mention a 4-card holding in the other major (to suggest an alternative trump suit).

The scheme is:

1S-2S,

2NT* asking bid for help-suit tries

3C*/3D* short-suit tries

3H natural, 4 hearts

3S* short-suit try in hearts

1H-2H,

2S* asking bid for help-suit tries

2NT* shows 4 spades

3C*/3D* short-suit tries

3H* short-suit try in spades

I don't know if this arrangement would meet Kokish's approval (I don't actually know what his scheme is), but I like that it seems to be pretty comprehensive.

These bids are off over interference, but Responder being a passed hand isn't a problem. They are also in play after Drury, for example after pass-1S; 2C-2D; 2S-?