[whereagles]

In the sequence

1♣-pass-1♦ (GF)

an overcall of 1M doesn't inconvenience relaying immediately, but it may trigger later disruption by overcaller's partner. For instance:

1♣-pass-1♦-1♠
pass*-2/3♠

(*)relay (dbl would be e.g. penalties).

In this situation you gave opps a chance to raise the preempt and got close to nothing in return. Probably not a good policy on the long run.

For this reason, I think it may be advisable to switch to take-out doubles, two-suited cues, etc. As an example, in the situation above you might turn off relays and define e.g.

1♣-pass-1♦-1♠
Dbl = take-out
1NT = balanced, stopper
pass = nothing special to say. Probably a balanced hand without stopper
2x = natural, 5 cards
2♠ = two-suited, michaelish (hearts+m)
etc...

In any case it is true that in practice overcalls by 4th player are rarer, than typically less troublesome, than overcalls by 2nd, so this might be overcooking it.

[newroad]

Hi WhereEagles,

I am basically in agreement.

My philosophy is more or less as soon as they have shown one (use T/O DBL's) or two (use unusual over unusual) suits, revert to standard defensive methods.

The only time I would continue relaying is if they didn't show a suit at all, e.g. some form of CRaSh/RCO style defence, or Fert over Strong Pass (something we used to do).

Regards, Newroad