The Gentle Art of Preempting by Suzi Subeck
Opening preempts are a really effective, underused bidding tool. They put maximum pressure on the opponents when trying to describe their hands… and they give you a chance to get into the auction even when you hold less than a normal opening bid.
Let's say you, non-vulnerable against vulnerable, are in first seat holding:
What would you open?
If you aren't playing weak twos, you would have to pass… however, if you are playing weak twos, you would open 2ª.
Now let's say that Lefty is looking at:
He has a normal opening bid of 1§, however, you have kept that from happening by opening 2ª in front of him. He really does not have enough in values to force the bidding to the three level. His hand is balanced with minimum opening points. Therefore, he is forced to pass. If his partner is holding something like:
your opening preempt may cause them to miss a cold three no-trump game… gaining you the lion's share of the matchpoints on the hand.
They might even let you play 2ª. You can go down a lot of tricks against their +600 for 3NT making.
As in the aforementioned example, preempts often cause the opponents to miss their games. In other instances, they can also cause them to get either too high or two low or to the wrong strain … all because the auction is starting at a high level.
When you hold a seven card suit, you should preempt even higher, opening the bidding at the three level.
Say you hold:
This is a 3ª opener. If Lefty and Righty are holding the same hands we gave them in the prior example, they are in an even worse position here. Since it is hard to for Righty to balance at this level, they will often miss their game and you will go home knowing you battled as hard as you could and were rewarded for your effort.
The reason preempts are so effective is that you force the opponents to describe their hands at a higher level. There is less room available for them to give each other the information they need.
Since they can only make a take-out double when they are short in your suit with the proper distribution in the other suits, they are hung out to dry in situations like the aforementioned. In addition to all this, bridge is just more fun when you can get into the bidding. Try it!
