Friday, April 07, 2006 10:28 AM

Hand Evaluation - Bad Pre-empts

PITBULLS:

A tormentee held this hand vul vrs vul in Thurs nite IMPs against me. ♠QJ10xxxx ♥Q10x ♦Axx ♣void. 1♦ to her right so what is your call ? Most of the Thurs nite crowd in their infinite wisdom chose a pre-empt of 3♠. This bid was opposite a non passed hand partner. What an atrocious bid ! How can partner every read you for a void , 3 HCP in your suit & an Ace & a queen on the outside vulnerable. Welcome to the VLT & slot machines ! Anyway these bidders all got appropriately punished after LHO made a negative double , opener converted so they all went for 800 against a partial. Worse still the partial is your way in clubs !

Along the theme of making undisciplined bids that catch partner , you really get partner this time. Partners hand ♠Void ♥J10xx ♦xx ♣AKJ10xxx who cannot even bid 4♣ forcing, as that should imply spade tolerance. She is shut out of the auction so must helplessly view the carnage. Some more conservative players choose a bid of 2♠ . This is slightly better in that it describes your outside cards a little , but still a bad bid in that this hand is not a pre-emptive type hand. This is an offensive type hand which is quite a difference. A void , an Ace & an outside Q10x makes it a nice playing hand if you let partner in on the decision. I would overcall 1♠ so that would get doubled. Partner would bid 2♣ & then 3♣ . If you buy it there , you win 13 IMPS for +110 !!

The tormentee at our table chose a pass. Partner made a vulnerable 2♣ overcall with a hand that does qualify for a pre-empt opposite a passed hand partner. Bidding 2♣ hides your hand from partner who now comes alive by bidding 3♠ with the safety of a vulnerable bidding partner. This got passed out , we beat it 3 for +300 & we lost 9 IMPS ! Being facetious of course , partner cannot bid 3♣ originally as that would describe your hand to partner who would now pass. I guess a 3♣ bid vul must show a bad suit with outside cards !!

This particular auction tells me what I already know. Nobody knows how to pre-empt ! They bid 3♠ with a 1♠ bid & 2♣ with a 3♣ bid . Why because Bridge is not a partnership game when it comes to pre-empting. You paid your card fees so when you hold a 7 card suit you just do what you feel like ! Partner is an unnecessary complication. “Bridge is a bidders game” is just an excuse for horrible undisciplined Bridge. As the song says “when will they ever learn “ . Respect thy partner !!