Saturday, June 24, 2006 2:56 PM

Hand Evaluation –Pre-empts ( Rescuing )

PITBULLS:

At the 3 level or 4 level you do not “rescue” pre-empts. If you bid over a pre-empt , you are interested in bigger & better things & the pre-empter must bid again. It is silly to rescue a pre-empt as her suit should be good enough to handle the pressure of that level.

What about the 2 level pre-empts - the weak jump overcall , the weak jump shift or the weak two ? With weak twos , a raise is the only non forcing bid. This is because weak twos are not really defined as pre-empts but descriptive bids as Barton calls them . These bids are suit disciplined in 3 out of the 4 vulnerabilities. You do not open a weak two vul vrs not with ♠x ♥K10xxxx ♦xxx ♣KQJ . These weak 2 bids are quite often openers with not enough defense (quick tricks ) to open the bidding. Sometimes hands with a horrible 11 or 12 HCP , so these are hardly pre-empts. ♠x ♥AJ10xxx ♦QJx ♣QJx is a weak two because of no defense but still lots of HCP’s. ♠x ♥AJ10xxx ♦xx ♣Axxx is an opening 1♥ bid & not a weak two despite less HCP’s.

The weak jump shift & the weak jump overcall are true pre-empts in every sense of the word. They do not have the hefty range of a weak two so they have a specialized bid associated with them. This bid is 2NT which asks for the size of the pre-empt as per your weak two understandings. I feel that a new suit is just improving the partial so is not forcing in these auctions. Treat this bids differently than weak two’s.

You open 1♣ , partner bids 2♥ vulnerable . You have ♠AKx ♥x ♦xx ♣KQJ109xx so why should you let partner wallow vulnerable in 2♥ when you have 3♣ almost made in your own hand ? All invitational auctions should start with a 2NT bid so if you wanted to force , do it with 2NT first. Partner can bid over 3♣ but does so on the basis of a hand useful in clubs.

A weak jump overcall is a pre-empt. Since 2NT is invitational for these bids also , we see no reason why a new suit should be forcing. 1♣-2♥-P-? ♠QJ109xxx ♥x ♦Axx ♣xx bid 2♠ to improve the partial . If partner bids again it is because she likes spades. If you had a big spade hand , just bid game or force with 2NT first. Over a 3 level pre-empt , 3NT is obviously to play so a new suit must be forcing. Not so at the two level as you have 2NT as artificial & forcing so go ahead & improve the partial.