Glenfield Technical Library

Pre-emptive Bids

Last Updated on 17^th April 2012

Preemptive bids are intended to make life difficult for opponents by taking up lots of bidding space.
ª J © Q94 ¨ KJT9872 § 84	They are typically made on weak hands with little defence but a long suit. In traditional Acol opening bids of three or four of a suit are pre-emptive based on a seven card suit. This example comes from the National Masters Pairs on 1^st March 2003 and is fairly typical. At game all this is a reasonable opening bid of three diamonds.

The modern style is to pre-empt more aggressively; often on a six card suit.
ª 3 © T4 ¨ JT95 § AKT932	Nick Stevens set a challenge for Tim Glover and Peter Neville in the 2003 Gimson semi-final by opening three clubs on this selection in second position at adverse vulnerability.

In first or second position the pre-emptive bid can be a double edged sword; causing more problems for partner than for opponents.
Board 9 Dealer N EW Vul	North ª 43 © A32 ¨ 8 § AQ86543		This example, from the match between Glenfield A and Leicester Bridge Centre B on 19^th March 2003, was a little too strong for a pre-empt in first or second position. At our table John Glover opened three clubs. Neither East or South has anything sensible to say over this and, should West protect with three diamonds (if it is not conventional – some players play three diamonds as Fishbein or FILM, showing a hand that would have made a take out double; allowing double to be made for penalties) it is difficult to see East stopping short of game. Note that the TNT is 20 and the hands obey the law of total tricks; both sides having ten tricks available in their best fits. John made three clubs plus one as did John Morrey and Lesley Neville’s opponents. Ken Skinner and Baerbel Sandhu bid and made four diamonds while Dennis and Geoff were the only pair to achieve theoretical par; doubling and defeating five diamonds by one trick. The downside of opening three clubs on such a strong hand in first and second position is that you might easily miss a game. Indeed four hearts is unbeatable.
West ª QT65 © 75 ¨ A97653 § J		East ª A2 © KT4 ¨ KQT42 § 972
	South ª KJ987 © QJ986 ¨ J § KT

It is also possible to use a double jump overcall as a preempt.
ª AQT9543 © 65 ¨ 52 § T2	Such an overcall proved highly effective in the match between Blaby B and Glenfield A on 18^th December 2002.

This hand is from the Pairs League on 20^th October 2011 – Commentary by Dick Pathan
	5S by N –450	0	0	Whether you open the North hand or not, East should make life difficult for the opponents by pre-empting with 4D. South doubles for takeout, and West might apply even more pressure by bidding 5D (only 2 off). At our table, Lucy (North) passed as dealer, East did open with 4D and I doubled, but when West passed, Lucy bid 4NT (showing two places to play) over which I bid 5H, which Lucy corrected to 5S. No swing in our match.

Tim’s Statistics Imps	Partner	We Preempt	IMPs	Imps/Bd	They Preempt	Imps	Imps/Bd
Glenfield A 6 Grantham A 6	Judith Taylor	2	-2	-1	1	0	0
Glenfield A 2 Castle Donington 10	Peter Neville	1	0	0
Stanley Trophy - Heat 7	Peter Neville				1	0	0
Stanley Trophy 2006/7 - Heat 1	John Glover				1	-3	-3
Porter – Leicestershire 16 Nottinghamshire 4	Peter Neville				1 (2)	11 (11)	11 (5.5)
Total for 2006		3	-2	-0.67	4	8	2
Glenfield A 4 County A 8	Peter Neville				1 (3)	2 (13)	2 (4.33)
Glenfield A 6 Phoenix A 6	Peter Neville	1 (2)	0 (0)	0.00 (0.00)
Glenfield A 4 Melton 8	Judith Taylor				2 (3)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Porter – Leicestershire 5 Oxfordshire 15	Peter Neville				1 (4)	8 (21)	8 (5.25)
Total for 2007		1	0	0.00	4	10	2.50
Pairs League - Division 1	Peter Neville	1	0	0.00
Total for 2012		1 (3)	0 (0)	0.00 (0.00)
Total		5	-2	-0.40	10	10	1.00

Tim’s Statistics MPs	Top	Partner	We Preempt	MPs	%	They Preempt	MPs	%
Gimson Final	20	Peter Neville	0	0		2	18	45.00
Total			0	0		2	18	45.00

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6.1 Bidding	Strategy	Acol	Psychic Bidding	Precision	Blue Club
6.1.1 Hand Evaluation	Defensive Tricks	Losing Trick Count	Playing Tricks	Point Count	Total Number of Tricks	Passing
6.1.2 Opening Bids	One Club	One Diamond	One Heart	One Spade	One No Trump	Pre-empts
	Two Clubs	Two Diamonds	Two Hearts	Two Spades	Two No Trumps
6.1.3 Responding to an Opening Bid	Simple change of suit	Opener’s Rebid	Responder’s Rebid	Preference	Opener’s Second Rebid	Jump in a new suit	Responding in no trumps
	Limit Raise	Inverted Minors
6.1.3.1 Responding to 1NT	Transfers
6.1.3.2 Responding to 2NT	Transfers	Baron
6.1.4 Conventions	Stayman	Fourth Suit Forcing	Reverse	Crowhurst
6.1.4.1 Conventional Opening Bids	Lucas Twos	Multi Two Diamonds	Weak Twos
6.1.4.2 Competitive Conventions	Jump Overcall	Lebensohl	Unassuming Cue Bid	Unusual No Trump	Continuing after opponent’s take out double	Take out Double	Cue Bid
	Fishbein	Defence to 1NT	Halmic	1NT Overcall	Redouble	Simple Overcall
6.1.4.3 Slam Conventions	Blackwood	Gerber	Roman Key Card Blackwood	Splinter	Jump to 5 of a suit	Grand Slam Force	Acol Four No Trump Opening
	Asking Bids	DOPI and ROPI
6.1.5 Doubles	Optional	Penalty	Lead Directional
6.1.6 The Protective Position
6.2 Declarer Play
6.2.1 General Technique	End Play	Squeeze	Finesse	Lose tricks early	Pin	Avoidance	Restricted Choice
6.2.2 Trump Management	Ruffing	Ruffing Losers before drawing trumps	Trump Coup	Ruffing Finesse	Loser on Loser	Coping with bad splits	Cross Ruff
	Dummy Reversal
6.3 Defence	Second Player	Signals	Third Player	Play the cards you are known to have
6.3.1 Defensive Tactics	Forcing Defence	Passive Defence	Merrimac Coup
6.3.2 Opening Leads	Fourth Highest	Third and Fifth	MUD	Top of Nothing
6.3.3 Plays in Third Hand	Finesse Against Dummy	Finesse Against Partner
6.3.4 Entry Management	Unblocking
6.4 Probability
6.5 Glossary of Terms
7 Through the Pack