2025 Retro Edition – January Week 2

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
Pass
Click to reveal awards

Panelists
August Boehm, Larry Cohen, Mel Colchamiro, Allan Falk, Geoff Hampson, Betty Ann Kennedy, Daniel Korbel, Mike Lawrence, Roger Lee, Jeff Meckstroth, Jill Meyers, Barry Rigal, Steve Robinson, Kerri Sanborn, Don Stack, The Sutherlins, Steve Weinstein
If it quacks like a duck

1NT by Weinstein. “I hate 2♥; I can live with pass.”

Falk: “I hate to bid on the controlless hand, but we could so easily have game or a partscore in hearts. It’s not like 1♠ is a guaranteed plus score, so I will keep the ball in the air.”

Hampson says, “I have a slow hand with just enough high-card points to think game is possible, so I make the cheapest natural bid.”

Sanborn, too: “1NT gives us the best chance of getting to the right strain.”

Boehm prefers 1NT because “as a passed hand, partner may think that 2♥ implies spade tolerance. Anyway, these soft values seem notrump oriented.”

Stack, seeing 8 HCP, feels entitled to bid, and the bid he selects is 1NT. “Passing with this hand has no appeal as it is too conservative.”

Kennedy, on the other hand, sees a whole lot of nothing. “Pass. With so few high cards and a misfit with partner, it seems prudent to stay out of the auction.”

Rigal passes. “Time to come alive later. The absence of aces and kings always has a depressive effect on my desire to bid.”

Same for Lawrence. “1NT and 2♥ are reasonable, but both make me nervous.”

Pass by Lee. “I would normally bid 1NT with this type of hand, but this hand is so soft that I will go low.”

Robinson selects 2♥. “I’m a passed hand so my hearts can’t be that good.”

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