Better Bidding #1 - Pre-empts (4 Level)

"I'm stealin' yer bidz, yo."

It was an unusually warm, November day, and once again I was stuck inside playing bridge. I spent most of the day following suit, wishing good luck to my partner and going down in cold part scores. 

In my youth, it was these types of days where I would start to bid more aggressively, making bad pre-empts, off shape takeout doubles and bid every 30% slam. 

I could share plenty of sinfully bad pre-empts of the past, however, today's post focuses on two hands in back to back rounds which feature disciplined pre-empts.

A little over halfway through today's session I picked up this hand, 3rd seat, vulnerable vs not.

Before I could come up with something devious and evil to do in 3rd seat, my partner plops down the 4 Spade bid.

This sends me into the tank for quite some time as I start to imagine all the hands he could have that would allow us to make 6. 

My partner wouldn't mess around at these colors so I imagine he has something juicy. I have 3 bids to choose from: 

-Pass - Usually the bid that gets me in trouble the least

-6S - It either makes or it doesn't, and I really don't have any forcing bids here

-4NT - If he shows me one keycard I will feel ill. If he shows me 2 that really doesn't get me anywhere as the Ace of clubs would be wasted. If he has 3 (and I'm assuming the Q of spades) he would probably open it 1 Spade

It's painful, but I pass.

Here is the whole hand:

Two pairs played the hand in 5S (one doubled), 4 played it in 4, and 1 pair played it in 6HX. 

The 4S bid is perfect and partner has exactly what he advertised. In first seat vulnerable, partner has 2 of the top 3 honors, and close to 10 points with no wasted shape. He only has 7 spades and I suspect some people would open his hand 3S, however I think that is wrong. (Bring on the hate in the comments section.)

There are times to push and pre-empt one level higher than what you have (bidding 3 with 6, 4 with 7, or ugh... 2 with 5).

3rd seat you can do anything, 2nd seat is supposed to be the sound seat. Shape is usually key. 

His points are in the right places - his outside king is in his next longest suit. A hand that is 7-2-2-2 is much less valuable than one with 7-2-1-3 shape. 

Most people play a double of a pre-empt as takeout through 4H. So over 3S you're not really stopping anyone. The opponents are not vulnerable so they can feel good about playing at the 4 level, probably undoubled with such a shapely hand.

But over 4S, with the East hand I would be hard pressed to find a bid. 4S isn't guaranteed to make. With the West hand, after East has passed, a 5 level bid is probably getting doubled. 

With the East hand at favorable vulnerability, I feel good about sticking in a double over 3S. South bids 4S, West now feels great about 5C or 5H as a good sacrifice or at least pushing the opponents up to the 5 level.

There might be an argument for opening the North hand 1S but it's probably a bad one. It's not quite a rule of 20 and there's really only one place to play this hand.

Finding 6HX is gutsy and it works out this time, but no one is finding a miracle sacrifice over a direct bid of 4S. If they are it's a total guess. 

Make your opponents guess, not your partner. As painful as it was for me to pass, at the time I felt confident that 6 was a long shot.

The next round I picked up this hand in first seat, both vulnerable:

I opened this hand 4H and I think it was right. Feel free to disagree with me and rip me apart in the comments section. Maybe this is more of an IMPs bid, but it felt right.

I have an opening hand, but I discounted my QJ tight of clubs and diamond doubleton. The stiff spade is nice, but it seems like with hands like these, the opponents have some number of spades. If they want to play spades, they can guess at the 4 level. Playing 4H doubled, however unlikely, should still yield good results. If I go down 2, they have probably missed a game their direction. 

Partner should have at least one trick for me, right? I have 5 losers and if I expect seven points from partner (ESP), 4 has a good shot.

Here are all four hands:

3 pairs played 4 Hearts because I'm guessing they all opened it 4H.

1 pair played 5H doubled, hopefully not because they opened it 5H. 

1 pair played 3S and 3 played 5D.

With the West hand I might venture a bid of 4NT as takeout for the minors. This is aggressive for sure. Pass and defend is reasonable with West's hand. 

With the East hand after 4H-pass-pass, 4S is not ridiculous but it is aggressive IMO. With 2 Aces and a King, defense looks like the right call rather than stretching. 

4 level pre-empts don't always stop the opponents but they do always make them guess. And if you can be consistent, your partner will never have to guess. 

Now let's consider the alternative: 1H... 

Maybe this is resulting. Maybe If we had missed 6H or gotten and doubled and set when they can't make more than 140 I would be writing a different post right now.

I'll admit I like 4H much better in 3rd seat and I'm not the type of person to open 4 just because I have 7 or 8 of a suit. But for the same reason my partner's 4S with Kxx in clubs was valuable, my QJ is wasted. To me this is a 10 point hand. Points Schmoints. 

Ok - so 1H -  lefty can do any number of things - probably 2D.... and now partner passes.

Crap! 

East can bid a forcing 2H, bid some number of diamonds, or even 4S with heart shortness and trusting his partner's bid. 

Now what? I guess I'm gonna bid 4H and feel stupid for letting the opponents glean information from 3 bids. 

I'm not playing 4H anymore, and I'm definitely not playing anything undoubled. I have zero defense at all and I'm clawing at an average minus. I can compete if the auction lets me, but if East finds the magic bid of 4S, I'm supposed to pass and let partner compete, but with any number of hands, he might never find the sac. I can bid 5H on my own, but now I'm guessing, and if partner's club points are in diamonds or spades, I'm down a zip code. So instead of making my opponents guess, I've made myself guess, and most times I'm gonna guess wrong.

To me 4H is a calculated risk. There isn't much he can bid to convince me not to take a stab at 4H. If he has a slam going hand he can probably figure it out, but if not, maybe it can't be bid by opening 1H either.

Also, for what it's worth, I made 4H. West led A and K of diamonds, and I think East high-lowed (showing an even number) so West continued with the Queen giving me a ruff/sluff.

It was a fortunate misguess for me, however the defense has no clues when they don't get a chance to bid.