Sunday,
November 20, 2005 12:17 AM
Hand
Evaluation – Reverses ( Phony )
PITBULLS:
Reverses are a natural bid showing at least an Ace above
an opener with the first suit longer
than the 2nd suit. Reversing is painting
a picture of your distribution as well as your
strength .Reversing to a 3 card suit is an ugly practice & causes confusion. Experts do it because of
the shortcomings of a non club system with big hands too strong for jump rebids in their suit.
You open 1♦ on ♠x ♥AKx ♦AKQJ10xx ♣Jx , partner responds 1♠. You are too strong
for a nonforcing 3♦ bid & leaping to
3NT may pre-empt you from slam , so you temporize with
a heart reverse. This is an ideal hand for an ACOL 2♦. We detest phony reverses so
hopefully we have rid our system of
these bids. If you do not play the ACOL toy , we have a multi-tasking
3♣ bid which is a relay to 3♦. With this hand , I jump shift to 3♣ & I pull the 3♦ relay to 3NT. This
shows this kind of diamond hand in our system. With less values but the solid suit , we leap to 3NT directly after the 1♠ response.
♠AKx ♥AKQJ10x ♦Q10x ♣x again another hand for a
phony reverse to 2♠ after a 1NT response.
Instead ,we use the club jump shift & pull the
relay to 3♥ to describe this hand. After a club opener , partner responds 1♦ , a 3♦ jump raise is a game
force. ♠x ♥AKx ♦AJxx ♣AK10xx
so we do
not need a phony reverse to 2♥.
With
strong raises in partners major with semi-balanced hands, we do not need a
phony reverse. ♠AKxx ♥AJ ♦AQ10xx xx You open 1♦ , partner responds 1♠ some people would
reverse to 2♥ & support spades as this hand is too strong for a
jump raise. This is a 2NT rebid to show the HCP & balanced hand in our system.
Support spades later. No need for phony reverses with these hand types either.
OK after
a club opener .
there might be a phony reverse as you do not have the
3♣ jump shift available. No ! We feel that if
you have a hand too strong for a 3♣ rebid
, open 2♣
& back pedal. ♠x ♥AJ10 ♥Kx ♣AKQJ10xx . This understanding
leaves no hand types that you need to resort
to a phony reverse. If after a club opener , you have
a hand too strong for a jump raise
of partners major , bid 2NT ! ♠AKxx ♥AQx ♦xx ♣AJxx 1♣-P-1♠-p 2NT .
A Tormentee held this hand today. ♠AQ10 ♥KQx ♦x ♣AKQ109x & opened 1♣. Partner
responded a heart so she bid 1♠! . This landed
her in 4♠ down one & 3NT is cold. You do not have a rebid
in standard bidding so make the best lie of opening 2♣. Partner bids 2♦ so you bid 3♣
followed by 3NT from partner. +600 was trivial in 3NT. With the club suit , you do not have the luxury of the 3♣ SJS so
anticipate your rebid problem & open 2♣.
All
reverses with these above understandings
are natural . You do not need to go thru hoops or
worry whether partner is reversing into
a 3 card suit or a two card suit for that matter. Take partners reverses to
the bank. If partner opens , reverses & bids a 3rd suit , she has
a singleton in the remaining suit. Natural
bidding at its finest ! There are no hand types in our system where
we need to make
a phony reverse. As an aside , we use Lebensohl after reverses except reversing into a minor
where the unbid major serves as Lebensohl
to right side the NT.