Monday, February 19, 2007 10:18 PM

Power of the Pre-empt

PITBULLS:

The power of the pre-empt is like being the house in Casino Blackjack. The customer must make the decision to gamble and ask for another card. The customer might break and the house did nothing to earn the money. When your side pre-empts , the opponents must make a decision to bid or double. Sometimes the pre-empt has done its dirty work so you do not need to do anything to earn your IMPS.

The 5 level is for the opponents is very true when partner has pre-empted. They have made a guess so there is no reason for you to make a guess also. You have ♠AKxxx ♥Jx ♦x ♣KQxxx and you open 1♠ nv. Your vul opponents double and partner pre-empts to 4♠. They have a decision to make so they decide to bid 5♥. If partner has the right cards , 5♠ might be a nice sacrifice nv vrs vul. Why gamble though ? The opponents have already taken the risk by bidding at the 5 level . You may have them booked in your own hand so lets see how good their guessing was. You pass and partners 4♠ bid was ♠xxxxx ♥Qxx ♦Q109x ♣x and the opponents are lucky to go 3 down vul in 5♥ ( 1 spade , 1 heart , 1 diamond and 2 clubs ). Give partner leeway with nv pre-empts.

Bidding 5♠ undoes partner’s pre-empt as you are gambling that you have a non vul sacrifice. Let the pre-empt work for you. At our table we beat 4♠X +100 as we chose not to go to the 5 level in 5♥. If you bid 5♠ , you go for –300 and lose 7 IMPs instead of gaining 10 . A 17 IMP swing . Only one gamble per pre-empt & they gambled first so do not hit 17. Lets see if they can get 21 at the 5 level.