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Should you?

Following and Breaking Rules.

Rules in bidding are really just guidelines and generally are to be followed. Sometimes, doing the right thing reaps its rewards…and  then there times when it does not!

 

Well, the rule, the guideline says “one should not pre-empt a pre-empt”. There may indeed be some reasons to bid here like having spades over hearts. We certainly have a pre-empt but we are a little lacking “up top”. One big minus against bidding now is that your partner may well expect you to have a better suit and a better hand. Imagine if their next bid is 4NT or even 6. You will await dummy with trepidation!

So, out comes a disciplined pass, through gritted teeth!

Very soon, you are in the pass-out seat after the bidding develops:

West                    North             East                South

                                                     3                Pass

4                         Pass                Pass                ?

Well? Not good enough to bid 3. Indeed, one of my opponents almost hinted that surely that the bidding was about to end. No way!

Partner’s expectation of one’s hand will be much less and although West’s raise to 4 could be a powerful hand with lots of top honours, especially in spades (! ), pessimistically, we should be able to scrape together a few tricks if doubled. Furthermore, we are no longer “pre-empting that pre-empt”! So, it's time to enter the bidding. 4!

Let’s look at all four hands and the rest of the bidding:

 

There was no double of 4 and the opponents were pushed to the 5 level. Job done? Well, not really, since trump could be drawn with only a minor lead (well, you hardly want to start with a spade!) saving the overtrick.

Two questions remain. Would you as North have bid 4NT for the minors over 4? For better or worser..or this time of no great consequence, I would have done. Our opponents would surely press on to 5, leaving South to possibly bid a minor at the 6 level, a good sacrifice, at best 2 down if West starts with a top spade...or maybe South could introduce spades for the first time at the 5-level! 

The other question brings us back to rules, sorry guidelines! There’s another one that says “the 5 level belongs to the opposition”. As North, what would they be thinking had they passed 4 and then see the bidding escalate to the 5 level? What can South have for their unusual “pass then bid” at the 4 level? Well, North has ruffing value, though, of course, South’s hearts were even shorter!

Time to bid 5, perhaps…and go against that guideline? As you can see, 4 is unbeatable with just the loss of 3 spade tricks. 5 is also unbeatable if West started with a top trump..but is a wonderful sacrifice any way if they, boringly, attempt to cash a top heart first.

So, these guidelines are generally good and one of them worked well enough here. Alas, it probably ended with a flat result if 4 or 5 was left as being the final contract. There was naturally a variety of results. Out of 16 tables, 4 was played and made 3 times. 5 was played and made 6 times, once doubled. 4 and 5 were played twice each, 5 being doubled both times and made once. Two tables saw 6 x as the final contract while the one North-South pair in 3 must have wondered what all the fuss was about!

It looks like one rule had to be broken for North-South to get a good result. Be a rule-breaker only when it's right!

Richard Solomon

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