[cargobeep]

Of all the bridge I've played, I don't think I've ever extended a partner's preempt before.

When should you do it?

[Phil]

 cargobeep, on 2012-November-06, 12:00, said:

Of all the bridge I've played, I don't think I've ever extended a partner's preempt before.

When should you do it?

There are many reasons to raise partner's preempt. When partner opens 3♥, we can raise to 4♥ for any of the following reasons:

1. We think we can actually make 4♥. If you estimate partner's hand can take about seven tricks, and we have three sure tricks on our own, go ahead and bid game with a hand like ♠xxx ♥xx ♦ AKxx ♣Axxx.

2. We don't think that we make 4♥, but we think our opponents can make game or slam. This is probably what you mean by 'extending partner's preempt'. By raising to 4♥ on a hand like: ♠xx ♥xxx ♦ xxxx ♣Qxxx, you take away more of the opponent's bidding space, which serves a lot of the same purpose as partner's preempt.

3. We might be able to make 4♥, but we would love it if the opponents bid. ♠AJTx ♥x ♦ AQJx ♣KTxx. When I bid 4♥ on a hand like this, we might make it and we might not. By raising to 4♥, I put an extra dose of pressure on my LHO. If he thinks I have a hand in #2 above, and he holds something like: ♠KQxx ♥xx ♦Kxxx ♣AQx, he will be very sorry he got involved in the auction.

#2 and 3 apply to raising a weak 2 bid to the 3 level as well, and I would probably raise 2♥ to 3♥ on 2 and I might on 3 as well.

[Stephen Tu]

 cargobeep, on 2012-November-06, 12:00, said:

Of all the bridge I've played, I don't think I've ever extended a partner's preempt before.

When should you do it?

Basically, whenever you have three or more trumps, raising should be considered. When you are raising partner on fewer than 3 trumps, it's nearly always because you have lots of cover cards (high trump honors, outside aces, kings, AQ combos) and think you have a decent shot at making game. How many covers depends on the vul and how aggressively your partnership preempts. Unlike Phil suggested I would *not* raise 3h to 4h on the AK/A hand, given the crap my partnerships like to open 3h on; I'd like another useful card.

When you raise with a trump fit, it is often a three-way shot. One, sometimes you make it, even on low point count. Two, you are counting on it being a good sacrifice against their contract, you are expecting if you go down, doubled, they are making game. Three, you are hoping they guess to do the wrong thing in the bidding after your raise (doubling you instead of bidding on, bidding on when they should double, bidding/not bidding slam when they should). Having lots of trumps increases your odds of one of these things working out for you, because it reduces your side's expected # of defensive tricks in the trump suit to 1 or none, and it increases your offensive potential since you will on average lose fewer trump tricks, and have potential to score ruffing tricks in your hand.

The times you *don't* raise having a fit are generally either:
- you are very flat outside, lots of potential losers, you think that there is too much danger of getting doubled and going for more than their game, or simply going down several when they don't have game and you have some defensive junk outside.
- you have a fair # of HCP, think that you don't have enough to make game, but enough that the opps might pass it out letting you buy the contract cheaply, if not you compete to say 3h/3s.

Plus factors for raising:
- trump length esp with shortness outside
- favorable vul
- being non-vul generally (can be down 1 doubled or 2 undoubled and still be less than their partial, a huge win at matchpoints)

Minus factors:
- flat shape
- unfavorable vul (though compensated somewhat by partner supposed to be having a better hand to begin with)
- defensive tricks vs. opps contract while not enough quick tricks to make yours (quacks)

Another thing you should be in the habit of is raising as far as you dare immediately. If you think it's reasonable to say raise 2h to 4h, bid 4h. Don't bid 3h, then bid 4h later after the opponents compete. If you think the opponents are certain to bid 4s, and you want to bid 5h, then bid 5h immediately (e.g. try to do 2h-(3s)-5h, not 2h-(3s)-4h-(4s)-p-(p)-5h). This forces the opponents to guess last, with less exchange of information. If you take the last push, they get to have both shown a fit/values and double you, rather than having to guess which to do.

In unclear situations, you will generally do OK raising to the level of the # of trumps your side has. (e.g. w/ 10 trumps raise to 4-level requiring 10 tricks, 9 trumps raise to 3-level requiring 9 tricks). Experience will teach you when not to follow this rule of thumb.

[ArtK78]

One of my favorite tactics is the advanced save - particularly raising partner's heart preempt to 5♥. This forces the opps to guess whether to double 5♥ or to bid over it at a very high level, without having the chance to exchange information.

The opportunity to raise partner's 2♥ or 3♥ opening or overcall to the five level doesn't come up too often, but when it does, it can be a very powerful weapon.

EDIT: I see that Stephen mentioned the 5♥ call in his post above.

This post has been edited by ArtK78: 2012-November-06, 15:03

[kenrexford]

 ArtK78, on 2012-November-06, 15:02, said:

One of my favorite tactics is the advanced save - particularly raising partner's heart preempt to 5♥. This forces the opps to guess whether to double 5♥ or to bid over it at a very high level, without having the chance to exchange information.

The opportunity to raise partner's 2♥ or 3♥ opening or overcall to the five level doesn't come up too often, but when it does, it can be a very powerful weapon.

EDIT: I see that Stephen mentioned the 5♥ call in his post above.

Conversely, I usually alert when partner raises my 2♥ or 3♥ preempt to 4♥, as a "Texas Transfer."