Pre-emptive Three-bids by David Bird

A: 3♣. When a hand will make several tricks if you choose trumps and very few if the opponents choose trumps, this suggests that a pre-emptive opening may be a good idea.

Non-vulnerable, hardly anyone would pass nowadays. That just makes life far too easy for the opponents. More and more players are willing to open 3♣, even when vulnerable.

Remember that if your LHO doubles, this will be for take-out. The opponents are likely to have a good game (even a slam) somewhere. Remove a slab of bidding space and they will find life difficult.

Your result so far:

A: 1♠. You have the values for an opening one-bid, and an easy 2♠ rebid. Opening 3♠ on such a hand might easily result in a missed game.

Pre-emption is not so important, anyway, when you hold the spade suit. You can overbid the opponents if necessary.

Your result so far:

A: 3♥ You have relatively little defense against a black-suit contract. It is likely that West has a good hand and will be looking forward to investigating the prospects.

Make life hard for West with a three-bid. In the third seat, this can be weaker than usual, or stronger than usual. Let them guess!

Your result so far:

A: 3♦. You hear people saying "don't pre-empt with a four-card major on the side". If partner happens to hold good heart support here, which is not particularly likely when you have shortness in both black suits, the opponents will probably have a great fit in spades.

Do not always worry about how a preempt might make life difficult for your own side. It is much more likely to do that for your opponents.

Your result so far:

A: 4♦. If your side plays in diamonds, your hand will make way more tricks than when defending some contract elsewhere.

You are ideally-suited for pre-empting and 3♦ is not enough. Bid 4♦. (Some would bid 5♦.)

Your result so far: