Retro Edition

What’s your call?

1NT
2♣ 2 2 2♠ 2NT
3♣ 3 3 3♠ 3NT
4♣ 4 4 4♠ 4NT
5♣ 5 5 5♠ 5NT
6♣ 6 6 6♠ 6NT
7♣ 7 7 7♠ 7NT
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Panelists
August Boehm, Larry Cohen, Mel Colchamiro, The Coopers, Allan Falk, The Gordons, The Joyces, Betty Ann Kennedy, Mike Lawrence, Jeff Meckstroth, Jill Meyers, Barry Rigal, Steve Robinson, Kerri Sanborn, Don Stack, The Sutherlins, Karen Walker, Steve Weinstein, Bridge Baron
That’s totally bogus, man

The weight of the panel comes down on the side of what Sanborn calls “a vile bid, to be sure.” Yes, she’s reversing into a doubleton, “but if partner has hearts, she will also have five-plus spades, and we are safe.”

Failing to suggest that Bridge Bulletin Standard (BBS) be switched to a strong club system for a change, Meckstroth calls the hand too strong to bid 3♣, and bids 2. “I don’t like the phony reverse, but here, if partner raises hearts, he will have five-plus spades so we will be fine.”

The Coopers play that 3 here would show strong clubs with three spades, but because BBS does not, they are stuck “fake reversing” into hearts, “our longer non-suit.”

Boehm bids 2 but says, “I’d like to go back and open 2♣. I have four losers and plenty of controls.”

“I can’t remember ever trying this bogus reverse’ with only a two-card suit,” says Walker, “but it stands out here and it’s totally safe. If partner raises hearts, he’ll have five spades, and I can keep correcting as high as necessary.”

Weinstein points out that an advantage to the bogus 2 reverse is that it pinpoints the diamond shortness.

“The things we do for love,” sings Rigal, as he joins the chorus of 2 bidders. “I have a hankering to bid 4♣ (typically 4–6 in the blacks with solid-ish clubs) because that gets the hand off my chest at one go, but a 2 reverse followed by raising spades might do the trick equally well.”

The 3♣ underbid got four votes. “Certainly I have extra values,” says Kennedy. “But I cannot bring myself to splinter, which shows four spades, or to commit this hand to spades ignoring my seven-card suit.”

The Joyces bid 3♣, holding their breath. “Obviously we are hoping that partner will bid again.”

Stack recognizes that 3♣ is heavy on values. “2 as a reverse hardly computes as a reasonable bid. If we raise spades to the three or four level, we face a situation that is never a winner in a bidding contest, and probably for good reason. This hand evaluates to about 20-plus in support of spades, so 4♠ doesn’t seem unreasonable, but we opt to land on our feet with the strength-showing and non-forcing 3♣.”

Lawrence vacillates between a forcing 2 and 2. “Perhaps it is better to bid 2. Whatever the winning bid is, it rates to be one of these two since it creates a force which will gain you enough time to straighten things out.”

Cohen bids 4♣. “Reversing into my singleton or doubleton scares me. This jump is forcing and shows good long clubs, enough for game and four-card spade support. If you slide the club deuce into the spades, I’ve described my hand.” Who’d have thought such high-level players missort their hands with such frequency?