By Andrew Robson

You do not pre-empt primarily to keep the opponents out of the bidding. In fact, as soon as your left-hand opponent bids (over your pre-empt), you’re happy.

Now, the main upside of pre-empting – namely forcing the opponents too high or into the wrong contract – may occur. While the main downside of pre-empting – namely getting doubled and "going for a number" – won’t happen.

On this deal from a world championship, East’s 5♦ pre-empt jostled North-South into the inferior game. 5 Spades would have made easily. What about 5 Hearts?

West cashed a top Club, then another, and then paused. There were two possible lines of defence. Most obvious was to switch to Diamonds, succeeding when declarer had a loser, leaving East with seven cards. This is what West elected to do.
No good. Declarer ruffed, cashed the Ace-King-Queen of trumps pleased to see the 3-2 split, cashed the Ace of Spades, led over to the (Queen and) King, and ran the remaining Spades. Game made.

The other – winning – alternative for West at trick three was to play a third Club (preferably low). East ruffs with the precious 7 of Hearts, and, by forcing an overruff with the Queen, West’s Heart holding is promoted into the setting trick. Did you spot the winning defence – arguably the indicated one as East’s leap to the 5-level suggests an eight-card suit?

Reading the singleton

When West leads the 9 of Spades, dummy’s suit, you can be fairly sure it’s singleton. Plan the play on that basis.

You win dummy’s Ace of Spades and, assuming Hearts split no worse than 3-1, can count nine tricks. There’s a potential third-round Diamond ruff in dummy but securing dummy’s King of Spades is an issue. At trick two, you must cross to your King of Hearts (noting East’s 10) then lead up your second Spade.

If West ruffs, your life is easy, soon able to establish dummy’s Spades. After West discards, you win dummy’s King and lead a third Spade. You can actually play any card from hand (except for the Ace of Clubs) but ruffing low caters to all Heart layouts. Let West overruff and the defence cash two Diamonds, for you can win their (say) Club return, cross to the Ace of Hearts, ruff a fourth Spade, ruff a Diamond, and cash a long Spade, discarding your Club. Ten tricks and game made.
Funnily enough, if West had led any one of their 12 non-Spades, 4 Hearts cannot be made.

This article was written by Andrew Robson and was originally published in Bridgerama+.

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