Pre-empts "Jesse James" by Marti Ronemus

This week in 1882, Jesse James was shot to death. It turns out that Jesse James wasn't killed by a lawman, but rather by a member of his own gang, hoping to collect the $10,000 reward. He not only didn't collect, but gave us a new standard to prove "no honor among thieves."

It also turns out that Jesse James' "robbed the rich and gave to the poor" reputation was unfounded. He did no such thing.

To commemorate Jesse, we're going to look at bids designed to rob the opponents... our favorite, pre-empts!!

We will be using disciplined Weak Twos, in that we will have a Darn Good Suit, with six cards, and either 5 pts in the suit, or three honors. We'll look at other factors also.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ J 10 8 3
♥ 6
♦ A K J 5 4 3
♣ 8 4 3

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
?	-	-

A: Pass: It only hurts for a moment. We don't like pre-empting with an outside four-card major. Why? We might miss a fit with Pard in the major. Picture what a fabulous dummy we would make in Spades! Pard could throw every loser from this hand and the next on our Diamonds. In THIRD seat however, with Pard a passed hand, we could indeed open with a pre-empt. Down the road, we will talk about pre-empting at the three-level with Diamonds, to make it harder for opponents to enter the auction.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 4 3
♥ A Q 9 7 6 5
♦ Q 8 4
♣ 3 2

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
2♥	p	3♣	p
?

A: 3♥: Pard's bid is forcing, forcing, forcing. He would like to know if we have support for his Clubs. We have nothing else to tell him, no Club support and are generally unhappy about the whole thing. We're not about to take a bullet for him, so we're going to rebid our suit. Remember, over our Pre-empt, a raise of our suit is (almost) the ONLY non-forcing bid.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ Q 3 2
♥ A Q 9 7 6 5
♦ 8 4
♣ 3 2

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
2♥	p	2♠	p
?

A: 3♠: Again, Pard is forcing us to bid, but unlike last hand, we've got support for his suit. We're going to raise him.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 4 3 2
♥ Q J 8 7 3 2
♦ A 2
♣ 4 3

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	Pass	p
?

A: 2♥: We are in third seat, the "find a bid" seat. Normally we would not pre-empt this hand. The suit is too poor, and most of our points are outside our "big" suit. Pard, as a passed hand, should NOT bid. We are already bidding for him.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ K Q 9 7 6 5
♥ 4 3
♦ A 9 4
♣ 3 2

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
2♠	p	2 No-trump	p
?

A: 3♦: With his 2 No-trump bid, Pard is asking if we have an Ace or King outside our "big" suit. Often he will be looking for an outside entry. Does he want to put it in No-trump? Spade game? We don't care... it's not our problem. He's the one with the gun... just do what he says.

And now, let's see if we can hold up the opponents with a nice pre-empt hand, a la Jesse James.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

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What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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