[shevek]

Calling all relayers ....

Our simple relay agreement is that 3NT and slams are to play.

Stopping relay at 5NT is for safety, allows asker to place the contract more often but you can miss the odd grand.

This happened recently:

Relayer had

AKJ, AJ, Q985, AT93, and knew that describer had either

a) Qxxxxx, KQx, Ax, Kx, or

b) Qxxxxx, Kxx, Ax, KQ

Unfortunately, the bid that showed either of these was 5NT, so asker signed off in 6S.
If 6C were available as relay, describer would bid 6D (to deny a 2nd heart honour) leading to 7S.

What do people do? What is your experiance?

[awm]

We do relay at the six-level (but not 6NT). It doesn't come up much, but it has occasional wins like the one you describe and I can't recall the last time it caused a problem for us.

[shevek]

awm, on 2018-July-07, 08:38, said:

We do relay at the six-level (but not 6NT). It doesn't come up much, but it has occasional wins like the one you describe and I can't recall the last time it caused a problem for us.

Gains like that are clear. Losses are ephemeral.
At lower levels, there are usually alternatives to relay, when you fear an awkward response.
(Such as 4D when you want to play 4H opposite a minimum)
At the 5-level, bids by asker are probably either relay or to play, assuming no suit has been set by other methods.
There must be times when (say) 6C is safe but a 5x relay would be dangerous. (If 6C would be relay over a 5NT response)
Still not sure