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When both partnerships are bidding during an auction it can get quite confusing. When should we bid or pass? Can we double? How do I raise properly? What the heck is a cue-bid?
This is the first of a four-part series that will answer these questions and give you the tools to become a tough opponent at the Bridge table.
The modern bridge auction is highly competitive and can become quite confusing with both sides bidding. As a result, one of the fastest ways to improve your scores is to begin to master these competitive bidding situations. This series will give you the tools to help you not only manage these competitive situations, but also put maximum pressure on your opponents when necessary.
We will start with a bid that is not used enough by the advancing player. This is what I call the “Tough Opponent” bid. Master this and you will be able to put maximum pressure on your opponents with little risk to your side. Put this bid into your toolbox and use it as often as you can.
Consider these two hands but don’t choose your bid yet;
Hand 1
Hand 2
Imagine you've just sat down for your afternoon duplicate game and these are the bidding decisions you are faced with on your first two boards. Before making your choices, I want you to think about how you feel in each of these auctions. How do preemptive bids by the opponents make you feel usually?
I posed this to some of my students in a recent class and the common words used to describe their feelings were; confused, uncertain, worried, angry, clueless, unprepared, frustrated and more.
These are perfectly normal feelings to experience after preemptive bids. These feelings should be especially present for you on hands like the ones I’ve shared above. With these two hands, I have basically given you impossible choices or, more appropriately, your right hand opponent has given you these impossible choices!
In each of the above auctions, your right hand opponent has used a PREEMPTIVE RAISE to interfere with your side. As we can see (and feel), this bid can be quite effective. With one bid they have denied us the opportunity to show our fit and our values at a comfortable level. After these bids, you are rarely going to have obvious choices and that is what makes this raise so effective or, as many of my students put it, “So Annoying!”. All you can do is make your choices and acknowledge your right hand opponent’s excellent bidding. Mark them down as a “Tough Opponent” for future reference.
The tough opponents at the bridge table are the ones who know how to apply maximum pressure to the other side while making normal choices with their cards. The PREEMPTIVE RAISE is a great tool for these tough opponents! Let’s take a look at how it works.
The preemptive raise is used, almost exclusively, in competitive auctions. A jump raise of partner’s suit shows; 4 – 7 (ish) total points and guarantees at least a nine card fit in the suit. Let’s take a look at another hand;
Hand 3
Make your bid (here's your chance to be a tough opponent!)
The correct bid is 3 SPADES! Let’s explore why.
Many of you are still looking at this 3 Spade bid as the “limit raise” bid (10 – 12 with 4 card support). This treatment is no longer useful in a competitive auction because we now use the cue bid raise to show our strong raising hands. This opens up the other “in suit” raises for preemptive actions. So, if we have a cue bid raise available we will almost always have a preemptive raise available. If alternatively we had an 11 point hand and 4 card support on the auction above, we would simply cue bid 2 diamonds (10+ pts. & 3+ card raise).
When we are in competitive auctions, and both sides are likely to have fits, we should be using the “Law of Total Tricks” as a guideline for the level we are willing to compete to. Simply put, we should be willing to compete to the trick level that’s equal to the total number of trumps our side has. On the above hand, we can reliably assume the opponents have a heart fit and we have a 9 card spade fit. So, The Law says we should compete to the 9 trick level, which is the 3 level. If we know we are willing to compete to this level already, and we are weak, we should bid to this level immediately! To understand why, go back to those first two hands of this article and replace the 3 level bids with 2 level bids. How did that feel? Much easier choices right? THIS IS WHY WE PREEMPT! Be that tough opponent and give the other side tough choices while making your choices simple 🙂 - (I can’t mention the Law of Total Tricks without referring you to Larry Cohen’s amazing books on the topic).
After making your 3 Spade bid, just give a thought to your left hand opponent and hope they're feeling you like you did at the beginning of this article. Let’s dance again;
Hand 4
Make your bid.
.......
The correct bid is 3 HEARTS!
You’re going to get there eventually if pushed to that level. Why not gain the extra value of preempting the opponents’ out of their potential fit discovery. If we allow our left hand opponent to bid 2S, our righty may perk up and out compete us. Get in there and make your one good bid, and maybe left hand opponent gets confused, upset, annoyed or even angry. The one thing they will know is that you are a tough player to sit against at the bridge table.
Click here read Part 2 where we discuss the bid that goes hand in hand with the Preemptive Raise, The Cue Bid Raise.
Rob Barrington is a professional bridge player and world renowned bridge instructor. He is the founder of bridgelesson.com and teaches large online courses on that site and through his popular YouTube channel. Rob resides in West Palm Beach, Florida.
That article is sick. Thanks for sharing.
One problem in ACOL we can open at one level with four of a major and too many points for !NT (12-14) I could be uncertain of 9 card fit
I enjoyed reading Part 1: Tough opponents - Toolbox and would like also read the the remaing 3 Parts of the series. Are these available yet ?
Ajit
Does the bid need to be alerted when it’s a preemptive response?
I believe that when a weak preemptive response is made in competition, you do not need to alert. However, if you use a weak preemptive response when there is no competition, it must be alerted.
Agree, and a good reminder.
Thanks for pointing this out. I always have trouble to teach these situations.
Most people only look at their own (and partners) hand but do not take into account that interference of opponents also gives you different choices for continuation.
Great article. Would be useful in examples if you indicate the system. 5 card major, ACOL etc. The choice with law of total tricks in the last example is different.
Looking forward to reading part 2, thanks
Where is part 2?
Guess we've to wait a bit.
This is based on a 5 card major system, the principles apply to other systems, but not necessarily the specifics.
Rob's other lessons will give more detail but the pre-emptive raises are used with other bids to show genuine raises. In any case you need to discuss this with your partner so that they understand.
This can push the opponents into game and hive us a bad score. When should it be done?
Yes it can, accept it. the whole point of the bid is you take away bidding space that they can use to find out if the need to be in game or not. Now the must decide immediately. The will be too high more often, they will miss game more often, but yes, also they may guess right. It remains a guess, and that's the point.
Thank you for this - it is completely new to me.
OK
I love your work Rob Barrington. .Always so positive and well written and entertaining as well as informative. Thanks for helping me to become a better bridge player (although I still suck most of the time)
Way to go Rob excellent bidding
Thank you Rob
Understand the premise, but still very scary to go to 3 level, with so little points.
Even going one down this is stil better than losing 140 points!
surely the vulnerability of each side must be taken into account
I agree.
That too going at 3 level when you are vulnerable.
¡Gran Maestro! Poder aprehender no sólo la teoría sino también la esencia de lo que un maestro enseña tan divertidamente e incluso con imágenes, es el súmum de la pedagogía. ¡Gracias Rob, por este artículo! Espero impacientemente las 3 lecciones siguientes.
Rob Barrington has great lessons and has helped my game significantly. Visit his web site!!!!!
Well explained. I have many of your YouTube videos. Always helpful.
Very useful informaiton.
What should I bid with 11 or 12 pts and 4 card support after a second seat double by opponents?
cuebid or artificial 2nt for majors support
Redouble
Conventionally, 2NT here shows a value raise leaving immediate raises as preemptive
How do I make sure my partner does not assume I have great points and bid higher
Thank you, very nice and funny and usefull page. And clear.
Waiting for the next !
No problem with the hands diagrams.
Doesn't vulnerability come into play?
That was my question too.
Indeed it does... but only for the defensive partnership (the one preempting).
Vs. a legitimate 4♥, you can give -300 (4♠X-2 NV) vs. 420 (NV), or -500 (4♠X-2 VU) vs. 620 (VU). At equal vulnerability, use the Law as described.
When vulnerability is favorable, you can give -500 (4♠X-3) vs. 620.
A contrario, you should give only -300 (4♠X-1 VU) vs. 420 but certainly not -500 (4♠X-2 VU). So you could adjust your biding limit by +1 or -1.
But for the pair who bids the legitimate 4♥, there is no way to give points, vulnerable or not. If you have 4♥ but not 4♥+1, you double and later congratulate your opponents for their thougness.
A contrario, if you have 5♥... You double 4♠ when NOT VU (because 450 is not better than 500), but you bid 5♥ VU, because 650 is better than +500, and even better than +800 if they dare 5♠.
Sorry for the long post.
why aren't the hands visible?
They didn’t show up for me either. I had to click “Disable Content Blockers” on my phone, and then they appeared.
Great article!
If I to the preemptive bid of 3 H , how does my partner know it is preemptive, she might go to 4 H?
She will know it is because you forwarded this article to her 😉
Discuss with partner beforehand to understand the value of a pre-empt bid and the Law of total tricks.
My question exactly!
Like Pauline above I don't understand the last example. There is a good chance that your partner has five hearts but you are not sure so the level of the fit may only be eight hearts and therefore bid at the two level. Very confusing without more explanation.
As the author is American he may be assuming that 5 card majors is being played.
Very clear until the final example. P 1H 1S ?
I don’t know that my p has 5 hearts, so it doesn’t fit your criteria for a jump to 3H … or am I missing something?
Very well explained! Thank you! I'm eager to know the best solutions also for the poor opponent of the tough opponent in Hands 1 & 2.
no hands visible so impossible to comment and chose the bid
I cannot see any hands, so obviously cannot comment.
3s.4h.3s.3s