Reverses

Reverses are very simple bidding sequences that seem to give a lot of beginners (and even intermediates) fits, for no good reason.

In standard bidding in the US and UK, we bid our longer suits first, and rebid a second suit later if that seems advisable. Generally speaking, with a balanced hand we will bid no-trumps at the first convenient opportunity. So after a bidding sequence like
1D – 1S; 2C (opponents silent)
responder can infer that opener has an unbalanced hand that includes at least five diamonds and at least four clubs. Now, suppose responder has a weak hand. What is the weakest action he can take? Obviously, if he clearly prefers clubs to diamonds, he can pass. But much of the time, he will like diamonds equally as well as clubs, or will have some holding like two small diamonds and three small clubs, in which case opener would be much happier in his 5-2 diamond fit rather than the 4-3 club fit. So most of the time, responder will return to opener’s first (and therefore longer) suit when he is weak. In the above example, he will bid 2D.

Now what if the bidding starts instead with
1D – 1S; 2H
What is the same, and what is different? Actually, everything discussed above is still true. Opener has an unbalanced hand that includes at least five diamonds and at least four hearts (this time). When weak, responder will usually return to opener’s first suit, diamonds. The difference is that this time, the lowest level will be a bid of 3D. If that is to be a reasonable contract when responder is very weak, then obviously, opener must have something more than a minimum opening. This sort of sequence is called a reverse – where opener bids two suits and forces responder to the three-level if he wants to get back to the first suit. In the UK, opener would be showing about 16+ hcp when he bid like this. In the US, people typically expect even more, 17-18+ hcp.

The situation should be compared to the sequence
1H – 2D; 3C
As with our reverse, no jumping is involved, but responder has still been pushed up to the three-level. In standard bidding, opener would still need extra strength to do this, and in fact, this sort of sequence used to be called a “high reverse”. Playing 2-over-1 game forcing, you can play this as merely bidding out your shape, and not showing extra strength. This is possible because responder has promised extra strength with his first response, so the three-level should be safe even if opener is minimum.

A style I like to play is to use five-card majors with 1NT response forcing, but with 2-over-1 responses not absolutely forcing to game. In this style, since the 2-over-1 responses are “meaty but not game-forcing”, a high reverse should be better than a minimum, but need not be a rock-crusher as in Standard American. I therefore like to play all reverses at about the British level, 16+ hcp.

You may ask why call it a “reverse”? What is backwards? The answer is: nothing that I can see. I think the name came from the thought that if you bid the higher-ranking suit first, you can get the suits in at the two-level. If you reverse the order, you force responder to the three-level. But which suit you choose to bid doesn’t actually have anything to do with its rank. As I started out saying, we bid the longer suit first.