What’s your call?
| 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 |
| Pass |
Both Weinstein and Cohen quote the late, great Al Roth: “If I can survive this round …”
Cohen bids 2♥ and finishes the sentence, “… I’ll get to bid spades next to complete a great description. Good to produce this bid in tempo so that partner won’t feel constrained to bid again.”
2♥ by Hampson. “This hand is not quite strong enough for a jump shift, and the hearts must not be lost. I will raise a 2♠ preference to three.”
Kennedy, 2♥: “With a weaker hand, I would bypass the heart suit and rebid my spades.”
Sutherlins, 2♥: “Not good enough to jump shift. A 3♠ bid misses a good vulnerable game when partner has one or no spades and four hearts.”
Lawrence: “3♠ gives up on the heart suit and 3♥ is too big a bid. 2♥ is a fairly standard compromise.”
“Automatic,” surmises Falk as he places the 2♥ card on the table. “I’m surprised this is considered a problem. If I had four low hearts, I would consider 2♠ or 3♠, but no reason for heroics with this honor distribution.”
2♥ by Rigal. “We’ll cross our fingers that the auction won’t die. But even if it does, who is to say partner has done the wrong thing? It wouldn’t be us who had done the wrong thing — we tried it once and didn’t like it.”
Maintaining his rosy outlook, Stack makes the game-forcing 3♥ call. “This is a great playing hand if we have a fit. If partner has as little as the ♥J 10, we could easily take close to nine tricks. If partner bids 3NT, we will correct to 4♠ with this strong suit.”
Robinson explains his 3♥: “Vulnerable at IMPs, you can overbid in order to get to a bad game. 3♥ does not promise five hearts, and partner can bid 3♠ to find out how many hearts I have.”
Korbel is a jump shifter, too. “I must get us to game, which will make opposite as little as:
♠x x ♥J 10 x x x ♦ Q x x ♣x x x,
and partner has more than that.”
Meyers and Sanborn jump to 3♠. Says Meyers, “I hate bypassing my four-card heart suit, but I don’t have enough to jump shift, and I am concerned that if I bid at the two level, it will go all pass.”
God bless Colchamiro, he doesn’t play results. “4♠. I won’t score well, but I believe that, with the ♠10, it’s the practical bid — bidding what I think I can make. And because I am disguising my shape, I may well have a leg up in the play.”
