Pre-empts What hands are suitable? Topics covered. What is a pre-empt? Why do we make a pre-empt? What hands are suitable? How to evaluate a potential pre-empt. How high do we bid? Partner's responses.

What is a Pre-empt A pre-empt or pre-emptive bid is when we deliberately overbid our hand. Without some help from partner, we do not expect to actually make the contract that we have bid!

Why Pre-empt The most important aim of a pre-empt is to use up the bidding space so that the opponents may not find their correct contract. In the words of the late, great George Vermont, “If you are going to pre-empt, then bid the maximum that your system and the situation allows, otherwise do not bother!” To quote David Beauchamp,”Tell partner what you’ve got, but just once.” Hopefully, we also accurately define our hand so that our partner can make an informed decision as to our final contract.

Hands that are potential pre-empts Long-suited hands with less than opening- strength. Never, never ever pre-empt with an opening- strength hand. Lets look at some examples ....

A First Example Ex 1...... You hold ♠ 96 ♥ QJ976 ♦ QJ86 ♣ 73 This is not a great hand, 6 HCP + 1 length point but it is a possible candidate for a pre-empt. More later.

Next Hand Ex 2...... You hold ♠ 96 ♥ KQT76 ♦ KQ86 ♣ A8 A similar hand to the previous one but much stronger. Far too strong to consider as a pre-empt. DO NOT PRE-EMPT with an opening-strength hand!!!

Evaluate a Possible Pre-empt We are familiar with the High-Card-Point (HCP) method of evaluating a hand which is fine for good hands or responding hands – but not particularly good for testing for potential pre-empts. Here we apply the Losing-Trick-Count (LTC) to test for a possible pre-emptive bid. There is a good description of LTC on Wikipedia.

LTC A quick summary. A void = 0 losing tricks. A singleton other than an A = 1 losing trick. A doubleton AK = 0; Ax or Kx = 1; xx = 2 losing tricks. A three card suit AKQ = 0; AKx, AQx or KQx = 1 losing trick. A three card suit Axx, Kxx or Qxx = 2 and xxx = 3 losing tricks. Note that no suit can have more than 3 losers, even xxxxx only counts as 3. Fairly easy once you get the hang of it.

13 – Losing Tricks Subtract your LTC from 13 to get a fair approximation of your trick-taking strength. Remember that not every 7-loser hand can be expected to take 6 tricks but it is a much better evaluation than just bidding a weak two with any 6-card suit or jumping to the 3 level with any 7- card suit.

LTC Practice Back to that first horrible example. ♠ 96 ♥ QJ976 ♦ QJ86 ♣ 73 What is your LTC? 8. 2 in each suit. So, 13 – 8 = 5 which suggests that you just might be able to take 5 tricks with Hearts as trumps.

How High to Bid # 1 We use the rule of 1, 2, 3. 1. When the vulnerability is unfavourable (We are VULNERABLE and the opponents are not) then we overbid by only one trick. Why? Because if we deservedly get doubled and go down by more than 1 trick then we get a very bad result.

How High to Bid # 2 2. With equal vulnerability (both sides NOT VUL = “GREEN” or both sides VUL = “RED”) then overbid by 2 tricks. Why? Because we can now be doubled and 2-light and still give the opponents less than if they had bid and made game. Do the sums. It is not rocket science.

How High to Bid # 3 3. With favourable vulnerability, the opponents are VUL = “RED” and we are NOT VUL = “GREEN”, then overbid by three tricks. Why? Now, we can afford to be doubled and 3-down and still give the opponents less than they would get for a game bid and made. Again, do the sums. Pre-school arithmetic!

Doubled Penalty Points Down By Not VUL VULNERABLE 1 100 200 2 300 500 3 800 4 700 1100 More Disaster Catastrophe!

Some Practice Back to that first example hand …. ♠ 96 ♥ QJ976 ♦ QJ86 ♣ 73 We have decided that it is an 8-loser hand. What do we bid? With FAVOURABLE vulnerability we have 5 possible tricks plus overbid by 3 tricks, so we can sneak in a 2-Hearts bit, otherwise we pass.

More Practice How about? All VUL ♠ QJ97642 ♥ K7 ♦ Q86 ♣ 7 How many losers? 6 (2S + 1H + 2D + 1C) What do we bid? 13 – 6 = 7 + 2 = 9, bid 3 Spades. I don't care what other bids there are, you DO NOT BID AGAIN, you have told your partner that you could/should have 7-tricks with Spades as trumps!

Partner's Responses Easy. Partner knows how many tricks that the pre-emptor has promised, so just count their quick tricks and pass or raise accordingly. How do we evaluate “quick tricks”? Obviously, any of the top-3 trumps (A, K or Q) is a quick trick. An Ace in a side-suit is also a quick trick. AK in a side-suit counts as 2 quick tricks and KQ counts as 1 and so on.

Response Example As responder to that first example, you hold ♠ AK54 ♣ 932 Count your quick tricks. How many do you have? 3 and a bit. Count the ♦ K97 as “a bit”. What to do? That depends on the opponents. Pass is always an option! Next ….

Responder needs to think. Thinking, thinking, thinking …. Partner has promised 5 tricks with hearts as trumps, no more, no less! So we have a comfortable part-score in hearts, game is very, very unlikely. Just Pass!! If the opponents over-call, then we can raise to 3- hearts with reasonable confidence. Now, if the opponents bid again, then we are set for a punishing double (the big X).

See how effective these really weak 2-level pre- empts can be. If as responder, you have a very strong hand, then you just bid game, investigate a slam, whatever. Partner's pre-empt should never “cramp-your- style”. Be thankful that partner has accurately defined her hand. Remember, when the opponents ask for an explanation of partner's pre-empt, then give an exact reply like, “We use the LTC method to evaluate the hand and the rule of '1, 2, 3' to bid.” Similarly, when an opponent makes what appears to be a pre-empt, then ask the meaning and their method of evaluation. Often you will get a nonsense reply – call the director!

Next Example Favourable vulnerability and you hold … ♠ KQT753 ♥ J8 ♣ 952 What do you bid? 7-losers = 6 (likely) tricks + 3 more for the favourable vulnerability. Go For It! Bid 3-Spades.

FWIW If you think that I've placed too much emphasis on the really weak pre-empts when you have favourable vulnerability, then you are correct. With equal vulnerability, the requirements for a pre-empt are more stringent, so you have to think a little bit more because your “pre-empt” might be better used as an opening bid or an over-call. Unfavourable VUL is even more onerous. It is unusual for a 6-loser (or less) hand to be less than opening-strength – remember, do not pre-empt with an opening-strength hand. More when I find suitable examples.

The End Bit This is my take on pre-emptive bidding based on listening to “experts” for more than 50 years. There are much simpler rules for pre-empts and there are more sophisticated ones. The very simple ones are too imprecise to be of any real use and the complicated ones are just too hard for an “average” club player. This is my work and I claim copyright. If I give you a copy, then it is for your personal use. If you want to use this presentation for public and/or commercial purposes then ask. © Glen Cunningham 2014