Preemtive Bidding (Part 4)

I’ve danced all around this subject, so now I have to get to the bottom line and tell you how to make a decision on whether to preempt, and if so, at what level. The most important thing is to recognize that bridge is a partnership game that is based on a communication system called bidding. It would be handy to tell partner what cards you hold, but since you cannot, you have to do that through bidding. Bidding is a form of code. Each bids means something, and the tighter the parameters, the better the communication. This means that partners have to set guidelines or standards for each type of bid, and that once set, the other partner is entitled to rely that the bidder holds the cards he advertised and make her decisions accordingly.

Within the rules imposed by the ACBL, a bid can mean anything that partners want it to mean. For example, my opening bid of 1NT means a balanced hand and 15-17 hcps with some partners, 14-17 with others and 11-14 with others. While the hcp range will vary by partnership, I must agree to play only one range with each partner. If I bid 1NT, partner relies on me to hold the cards that are equal to our standard. Standards are equally important in making preemptive bids, and not unlike my no trump example, they can mean anything you and your partners want them to mean, but they can’t mean one thing one time, and another thing another time. To engage in such a practice simply undermines partnership communication and such “masterminding” usually results in abortive communication and strained partner relations.

Let’s use weak 2 bids in 1st and 2nd position as an example. The standards for those bids are often described by suit strength. For example, your standard could promise partner that you will hold 2 of the top 3 honors in the suit. If you have another partner who likes to be more aggressive, with that partner your standard could be 3 of the top 5 honors. That standard will find you preempting more often, but the price for being more aggressive defensively is that you run a slightly greater risk of getting set by the opponents for a total that is more than they could make on the hand. A further downside is that if partner actually has a good hand, it is harder for her to engage in constructive bidding since your suit could be headed by either the QJ10 or the AKQ. As we head down the slippery slope, we tend to lose our discipline. If you think the answer lies in “inquiry conventions” like Ogust, be patient until I can tear at that a little in a subsequent installment dealing with responses to weak 2 bids.

Another important part of setting a standard is to set limitations on the defensive tricks that the weak 2 bidder will have outside the trump suit. Remember, a good preemptive bid is supposed to say to partner “good offense, no defense.” If you make a weak 2 bid with J10xxx, x, KQx, Kxx, that bid sends the wrong message since you have very poor offense and very good defense. How is partner, who is considering a save at the 4 level, going to reach the right result. You can probably beat 4 hearts, but how is he supposed to know this when you have sent him this confusing message. Whatever your standard is for the suit, I do not advise making a preemptive bid if the hand has more than one Ace or King outside the bid suit.

How weak can a standard be? I hope by now that you understand that it can be as weak as you want it to be as long as you and partner agree to it. In an extreme, you could have a standard such as "I will never have hand as good as 3 of the top 5." Thus, you would open J10xxxx, or Q9xxxx, but not open AKxxxx since it is too good for your standard. If that is what you want to do, be my guest, but it sounds like a recipe for disaster. What, you say, you want to open all three of those hands with a weak 2 bid. Well, there is no rule against it, but you have just turned your bridge partnership into a one man show and placed partner in a position where all he can do is pass, since even with a potential game going hand, he never knows which hand you are bidding. It points out the folly of each partner having the discretion to bid on whatever type of hand suits him at the moment.

Just a brief comment on making preemptive bids at the 3 level and higher. In an earlier post I spoke about the 2-3-4 rule (sometimes called the down 500 rule). Thus, the standard is that looking at only your hand (and no miracles), you will not be down more than 2 at unfavorable vulnerability, down three at equal, and down 4 at favorable. I personally like that standard, but if you need more excitement in your life, you can move the standard to 3-4-5. Expect to get in the opponents hair more often, but also expect to have more regrets and to reduce the accuracy of partners constructive bidding. You can also elect not to have any standards (open at the 3 level anytime you have 7 cards in the suit). Yum-Yum, be sure to start with my partner and me, we are friendly people.

I hear all the time "I saw Jeff Meckstroth open a 5 card major at the 2 level, or open a 6 card minor at the 3 level." Yes, if you are one of the best players in the world you can do things like that successfully, since the judgment is impeccable and the declaring skills are about 1½ tricks above yours on average. When strangers come and offer you $10,000 to play a Board–a- Match event, you will know that your time has come.

Preemptive Bidding Part 3

A decade or so ago, Michael Farebrother, (an English Bridge authority) authored an article titled Preempts Made Sane. That implies that preemtive bids are often insane. Who with any experience at the bridge table could disagree with that? What creates the aura of insantiy is the lack of partnership standards. If you do not have any rules or standards for preempts, then you end up barring your partner more than your opponents. Most important are hands that you do not want to preempt on even though you may have the requisite number of cards in the suit. Here are some of Mr. Farebrother's rules paraphrased:

1. When you preempt, you are denying holding an opening hand. If you are in first or second position, and hold a decent 6 card major suit with 10 or 11 hcps, a preemptive call will more often be wrong than be right. It’s not that your hand is not good enough, it is too good and the bidding space that you take up will probably belong to you and your partner, thus frustrating an intelligent "game going" auction. I too often see hands like AQJxxx, x, K109, xxx opening 2 spades. Why not open 1 spade? If partner holds xx,xxx,AQxxx,AQx, we have an excellent play for 4 spades; but it is unlikely we will find our fit and game if partner has to start responding at the 3 level. On the other hand, no matter what partner responds to 1 spade, you have a nice, safe rebid of 2 spades, so there is not much risk in taking it “slow and easy” with this hand.

2. Do not preempt if you have a limit raise for a major. If you open 3 diamonds with Q10xx, x, QJ10xxxx, A, you will miss your spade game if partner shows up with AKxxx, xxx x, KQxx. One thing that I have learned about this type of hand is that if you pass initially, even if partner does not have a good hand, there is usually plenty of time to enter the bidding later and it is almost risk free, since you are a previous pass.

3. Don’t preempt with more than one Ace or King outside your suit. Partner should always be able to count on your for not more than 1 defensive trick. This will be critical in his decision on whether to either double the opponents or sacrifice. When you preempt,the preponderance of your high card strength should be in your bid suit.

4. Avoid preempting with a void or more than one singleton. A highly distributive hand has a lot of defensive strength. Again, partner will underestimate your defensive strength, and you may be down 2 doubled, when all opponents can make is a part score. Sound familiar?

5. Do not preempt with a weak broken suit. QJ109XXX is a weak suit, but at least it is solid and will always take 5 tricks. KJxxxxx, may only take 3 tricks and if you hear 3h/p/p/x/p/p/p, you have located the AQ10x(x) directly behind you. Everyone should do that once to really feel the pain. It is somewhat akin to my experience with bad overcalls. How often have you been tempted to overcall with a crappy suit, and then at the last minute gain your sanity and decide to pass. It is incredible how many time that happens to me and the next thing that occurs is that my LHO responds in the suit that I was going to overcall

In the next part I will indicate what I believe is a sensible approach to establishing partnership standards for preemptive bidding. I will warn you that my recommendations for bidding standards for preempting will reflect my strong belief in being able to trust your partner. Call me old fashioned!