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Responses to opening three and four-bids by Andy Hung

In the last quiz, we looked at how and when it was the right time to open a pre-emptive three-or-four level opening bid. For example, a pre-emptive 3♠ opening would show 6-10 points with (at least) a seven-card suit. Factors that determine a pre-empt were suit quality, vulnerability, and hand distribution.

In this quiz, we will be looking at how to respond to pre-empts because they are equally as important as the pre-empt itself. Sometimes even with a good hand, you might be forced to Pass partner's pre-emptive opening bid! Just remember, when responding to a pre-empt, rather than looking and judging your hand based on your high-cards, you should instead be looking at how many tricks you can provide partner.
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Question 1

  South
♠ A 8 7 5
♥ 5
♦ A 8 7 4 2
♣ A 5 4 		 
Q: 1 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♠Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 4♠. When responding to pre-empts you should be thinking in terms of tricks rather than the number of points the partnership has. The reason is because when partner has shown a long suit (i.e. a source of tricks), you no longer need the pre-requisite of the "25 combined points" to make a game - you can start adding tricks to partner's tricks, and see if that is enough for game. For example, on this deal you can visualize that partner has seven Spades headed by the K Q. You can see that you have seven spade tricks, and your two minor suit aces. That's already nine tricks, and with your singleton Heart, partner should be able to ruff a Heart in your hand, adding the total up to ten tricks! Therefore, despite holding only 12 points on this board, you should raise partner to 4♠.

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Question 2

  South
♠ K 8 5
♥ A K J 10 8 5 4
♦ 5 4
♣ 2 		 
Q: 2 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♠Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 4♠. You have a great Heart sure that's true, but take a look at the auction. Partner has announced a seven-card suit, which should be of decent quality. Since you have three-card support for partner, you should definitely play in Spades and raise him to game. As little as: ♠A Q 7 6 4 3 2 ♥3 ♦8 7 ♣9 8 5 from partner, and ten tricks looks to be an easy make (seven spades, two hearts, one club ruff).

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Question 3

  South
♠ 2
♥ K Q 8 7
♦ A Q 5 4
♣ K J 6 2 		 
Q: 3 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♠Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: Pass! Holding a singleton in partner's pre-emptive suit is a big negative factor and that's usually a sign to stay low. Especially you should not bid 3NT because partner is not promising any entries to his hand. For example, if partner has a suit of ♠K Q J x x x x, sure you might be able to set it up, but how are you going to get over there to cash those tricks? Contrast our current hand with: ♠8 2 ♥K Q 8 ♦A Q 5 4 ♣K J 5 2 Can you now see how big of a difference of having a doubleton support can be? With a doubleton, partner can take two finesses (if needed) but with only singleton support, partner would struggle if his suit were as poor as ♠K J 10 7 6 4 3 for instance.

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Question 4

  South
♠ A J 5 4
♥ 6
♦ 7 3
♣ K 10 9 6 5 4 		 
Q: 4 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♠Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 4♠. Holding such a weak hand with excellent Spade support, you can pretty much predict that the opponents have a game on. But why wait around and see when you can pre-emptively take the sacrifice with a raise to 4♠. This would give West a real headache if he is thinking about taking a bid! Your singleton Heart is great, and your long Club suit is a potential source of tricks. In fact, 4♠ might even make! Imagine if partner has something like: ♠ K Q 9 8 7 2 ♥ 10 8 5 ♦ K 8 ♣ 2 ...and 4♠ makes if the ♦A is onside!

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Question 5

  South
♠ A Q J 8 6 4
♥ A 10 4
♦ 7
♣ K 6 2 		 
Q: 5 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♣Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 3♠. A new suit in response to a preempt is natural and forcing for one round. Partner's 3♣ opening boosts the offensive potential of your hand. You have good chances in 5♣ but before making that bid, you should bid a forcing 3♠ to see if you have a Spade fit. If partner rebids 4♣ suggesting no Spade fit, you can later raise that to 5♣.

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Question 6

  South
♠ 8 7
♥ J 7 6
♦ A K Q 8 4
♣ A K Q 		 
Q: 6 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
4♥Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: Pass. We have a great hand that's right, but remember, we're still in the mode of "counting tricks" rather than "counting points". If we are searching for slam, we should be "counting losers" as well. On this hand, it's quite likely that we may have one or even two Spade losers. Partner is not even guaranteed to hold the ♥A so the five-level can prove to be dangerous. Be happy that partner has hit a very good dummy, but it's certainly not good enough to take a further move. Partner is allowed to hold a hand such as this, (isn't he?): ♠Q x ♥K Q 10 9 8 4 3 2 ♦None ♣J 10 9 In which case, 4♥ is the limit.

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Question 7

  South
♠ A 8 7
♥ A Q 3
♦ K 8 3
♣ K J 8 5 		 
Q: 7 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♦Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 3NT. When you're looking for game opposite a minor-suit pre-empt, consider 3NT before committing yourself to the five-level. Here you may well be able to grab seven Diamond tricks and two Aces.

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Question 8

  South
♠ A Q 3
♥ A 9 4
♦ J 10 9 7
♣ A 7 4 		 
Q: 8 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♠Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 3NT! Yes, you do have a ten-card fit in Spades, but think in terms of tricks. Partner's 3♠ preempt must be based on a seven-card suit headed by the King (we are staring at the Ace and Queen ourselves), and with seven tricks in the bag, adding the two Aces and we have nine easy tricks. We have a stopper in the Diamond suit so we should be all set to go in 3NT.

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Question 9

  South
♠ 2
♥ A K 7 5
♦ A 7 6 4
♣ A Q 5 3 		 
Q: 9 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♠Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 4♠. This hand must be played in Spades and the only question is: what level? Passing is conservative since we can provide partner with four top tricks (and maybe a fifth if partner needs the Club finesse). 3NT is a very poor call as there will be no way to get at partner's Spades. It is a curiosity that you often raise partner's major-suit pre-empt when you have minimal support but bid 3NT when you have some useful cards in his suit. Strange but true...

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Question 10

  South
♠ A Q J 10 5
♥ A K Q 10 7
♦ 7 4
♣ 5 		 
Q: 10 - You are sitting South as the responder, and partner has made a pre-emptive opening bid. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid?
SouthWestNorthEast
3♦Pass
?


 Your choice:
A: 3♠. We have a pretty good hand - it's effectively a self sufficient hand for a major-suit game. As long as partner has three-card support for us, then we rate to take ten tricks all on our own. If partner can provide any support in Diamonds, that would be good as well. Remember, a new suit over a pre-empt is forcing so partner won't be passing 3♠. Why not 3♥? The reason why the 3♠ is better than 3♥ is because if partner doesn't have a fit over 3♠, partner's very likely to rebid 4♦ and over that we can rebid 4♥ giving partner a choice. But had we bid a forcing 3♥, partner might rebid 4♦ and now we'd have trouble introducing Spades as we'd then have to bid 4♠.

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