What’s your call?
| 3♥ | 3♠ | 3NT | ||
| 4♣ | 4♦ | 4♥ | 4♠ | 4NT |
| 5♣ | 5♦ | 5♥ | 5♠ | 5NT |
| 6♣ | 6♦ | 6♥ | 6♠ | 6NT |
| 7♣ | 7♦ | 7♥ | 7♠ | 7NT |
| Pass |
Eric Kokish advocates taking a “falsepreference” when holding a singleton in partner’s first-bid suit in bidding situations such as this.
Falk explains. “Mr. Kokish convinced me several years ago to just bid three of opener’s suit with any excuse and let things sort themselves out from there. The singleton ♥Q is actually not bad. I don’t want to put opener in a box by rebidding 3♠ with such crummy texture, and it’s too soon to raise diamonds.”
Rigal: “3♥. As they say, hide this answer. Eric Kokish would support this without a comment, assuming we’d all do it. My feeling is that partner, when he forces to game, either has spade support or a real two-suiter. He’s supposed to bid 3NT over my 3♥ with, e.g.,
♠x x ♥A K x x x ♦ A J x x ♣A K,
because I can always re-raise hearts, knowing we have a fit.”
Colchamiro, too. “EOK will give me his seal of approval. 3♥ will leave room to let us go wherever we need to go. Besides, with partner showing strength, the queen is as good or better than a low doubleton.”
Boehm says, “I’d bid 3♠ with most partners, but 3♥ with a Kokish disciple. I’m beginning to see the light of the counter-intuitive, temporizing, marktime preference, even with a singleton, to preserve space after a jump shift.”
Korbel, too. “Partner won’t raise to4♥ unless the singleton queen is good enough. This leaves room for a 3♠preference, 3NT or a 4♦ rebid.”
Lee bids 3♥ reluctantly. “I don’t like misrepresenting my heart length here, but we have too much of a fit in the redsuits to unilaterally bid 3NT, and our spades are not nearly good enough to rebid.”
3♥ by Meyers:“My choices are 3♠(my suit isn’t good enough to be raised by partner holding a low doubleton), 4♦ (which goes past 3NT) and 3♥(which I don’t love, but it is forcing).”
Sanborn bids 3♥, “unless I am playing that 3♦ promises five trumps, in which case I would raise. It is often right to take a false preference for the major. 4♥ is our most likely game. Should partner come to life, we canjump to 6♦ on the next round.”
Now for the panelists who haven’t drunk the Kokish Kool-Aid:
Meckstroth: “3♠. No perfect bidhere.”
3♠ by Kennedy. “This allows partner to bid 3NT or 4♦ .”
Handley bids 3♠. “We have three great cards in partner’s suits, which could be all that is required for slam. I don’t want to bid a ‘slow-down’ 3NT, indicating a club stopper that might easily turn out not to be a club stopper at all. Let’s just allow partner tocontinue to describe his hand without my telling him any lies.”
Stack is satisfied with 3♠. “I have three fitting cards for partner and the inability to support either red suit because of length. So let’s bid 3♠, which shows at least five and is forwardgoing. Partner may bid 3NT if that is where we belong.”
The Sutherlins stumble into 3NT. “Rebidding spades and raising diamonds are both flawed.”
Cohen, too, tries 3NT. “I sort of have everything stopped and sort of a notrump hand.”
Sort of
