Without interference, most pairs with a little experience can bid well enough to the best spot most of the time. Information is exchanged by the partnership’s dialogue. For example, 1H:2C, 2D:2H, 4H can be translated into: ‘I have hearts.’ ‘What about clubs?’ ‘No, I have diamonds, too.’ ‘Oh, I prefer your hearts.’ ‘All right, lets try 4D then.’
Imagine that before the above dialogue took place you had opened 3S.What happens to their dialogue? Opening bids of 3-in-a-suit or 4-in-a-suit or 5C or 5D are called pre-empts, because by getting in first you aim to shut out the opponents.
Pre-empts force the opposition into guessing what to do. Their decisions have to be made without any clear knowledge of what is held by their partner. When they have to guess at the contract, they will sometimes make the wrong guess. That is your profit.
A pre-emptive bid is made on the first round of bidding. There is no such concept as a pre-emptive rebid, since if the opponents have not entered the bidding on the first round, there is no need to shut them out. A pre-empt can be made in any position, by opener, by responder or by either defender. Pre-empts are more effective the sooner they are made as that reduces the amount of information the opponents can exchange. Therefore, pre-empt as high as you dare as early as possible. Once you have pre-empted, do not bid again, unless your partner makes a forcing bid.
A pre-emptive bid skips two or more levels of bidding. For example, opening 3D is a pre-empt because it skips over 1D and 2D . Likewise, 1C : 3S is a pre-empt because it skips over 1H and 2S , but, 1S :3Dwould not be a pre-empt, as it skips over 1S and 2D , but, 1S : 1C:3S would be a pre-empt, since it skips over 1C and 3S , but, 1S : 1C:1S and 2S : 1S:2C would be a pre-empt, since it skips over 2H and H. Since the due amount is not known until the contract is completed, skips are useful in 2 ways. First, they can reduce the amount of information the opponents can exchange, and second, they can allow a stronger hand to be played, stronger hands being played with less information available.
The pre-emptive jump can be made in any position, by Pokerace99, by responder or by defender, unless the rule applies to the specific suit of the opener or defender, in which case it may be applied only to the raiser or the caller. Rules such as the rule that all Cs fall in Cs are exceptions to the rule.
When opener has a weak hand, like ace-black or ace-ten, and it is not worth losing a small bet to call a raise, the responder to the opener’s raise may make a Cc-Re-Jc opening bet. The Cc-Re-Jc opening bet skips two levels of raising, since the hand qualifies as Cs and then falls into Js. Since the opponent to the opener’s raise does not want a call, he may downs the ante in order to get a free card with the Jc-Re combination.
When opener has a strong hand, the Cc-Re-Jc opening bet may be sized to maximise the how much money it costs to call, rather than to chase a free card. In other words, the pre-empt can be designed to pad the pot in anticipation of a strong hand, rather than to chase a draw.
Consequently, the defender may not bet, but there is no need to limit the number of opponents in the game. Once a strong hand has been represented by the hands of the strong hands, the weak hand can be systematicallyuffed by raising.
A Responsible Playing of the Strong Hands
It is possible to commit mistakes in the playing of the strong hands. For example, when opening 3H or 4S in early position, raising too aggressively can often scare away the tight players from the pot. A response to such a raise might be to re-raise in order to more clearly define the field size.
Another typical mistake is to over-raise with a strong hand. If the raises are too large (compared to the pot size) then some players with weak hands may call, thereby committing themselves to the betting.
