The Weak Two-Club Opening

What do you open in third seat with ten solid clubs and three small singletons? This hand came up at the 1998 Honolulu Sectional. At my table, partner opened 5C and I doubled RHO's 5D bid, an auction which was duplicated at our top matchpoint player's table for 2.5 out of 8 MPs. Other opening bids I heard about were a Gambling 3NT (the big winner if allowed to play there, since 4NT was the limit with best defense) and 6C, which should go quietly down one, probably undoubled since the two missing aces were split. There was also a 2C bid, and I suspect there were also votes for 1C, 3C, and 4C. I would even consider a pass in first seat, but in third seat a passout would be too embarrassing.

The 2C opening is an example of what I have started to call the Weak 2C Opening. In recent months I have seen numberous examples where a game (and once even a slam) were missed after an opponent opened 2C with this sort of hand: 9+ winners but very limited high-card strength. This creates a real headache for the Director, because the ACBL has long had a regulation prohibiting psychic artificial 2C openings. Is a 2C opening with this hand a psychic? If not, how about A10xxxxxxxx? My own requirements for 2C are a balanced 22+HCP or an unbalanced 17+ HCP with 9+ winners. Were that the standard definition, a 2C opening with 14 HCP would not be considered psychic, since the usual definition of a psychic is a bid with more than a king less than the expected minimum (or with at least two cards less than the expected suit length). I have opened 2C with a solid 8-card major and an outside ace, but never anything lighter.

Anyway, the Weak 2C Opening is becoming so common that the ACBL may be forced to adopt some minimum HCP requirement or to abandon their prohibition against psychic strong artificial openings. The WBF and the Laws of Contract Bridge have no such regulation; the ACBL regulation was added many years ago in an attempt to discourage psychic bidding, which they wanted to believe was driving members away, since they were then unwilling to admit that smoking and rude behavior were the real culprits