When your partner preempts, you are the captain of the auction.
- All raises are to play
- Doubles are for penalty
- Whether new suits are forcing or not is a matter of partnership agreement. If you preempt aggressively, playing a new suit as non-forcing is attractive. Jump in a new suit or go through 2NT to force. New suits should be forcing opposite a 2nd seat preempt because a 2nd seat preempt always shows a good suit.
- Redoubles ask the preempter to double if they have shortness in a suit bid by their right-hand opponent
- Consider tricks not points:
- Aces in side suits are valuable, Kings to a lesser extent
- Queens and Jacks are less valuable in side suits
- Opposite a minor suit preempt, consider whether 3NT is viable. You need stoppers and quick tricks.
- Be conservative responding to a potentially aggressive preempt, partner may have already pushed a level higher than normal. Tend to go 1-level lower when raising.
- Raise normally with trump support and shortness, e.g. 2♠ - (P) - 4♠ with ♠ K984 ♥8 ♦KJ83 ♣9852
- A passed hand can give the preempter permission to sacrifice with an impossible 3NT bid
On an auction which begins with a preempt by your partner followed by a takeout double, we recommend using a redouble to ask your partner, the preempter, to double their right-hand-opponent's bid if they have shortness (a singleton or a void) in the suit bid. This helps find games or slams when you are concerned about quick losers in a suit. It helps you determine whether to bid or penalize your opponents.
If your partner opened a Weak 2, you can invite game using an artificial 2NT response. The most common agreements for the 2NT response are:
- 2NT asks opener for a feature. See our Feature Asking article.
- 2NT is Ogust, asking opener to describe the quality of their suit and the quality of their hand.
See our Ogust asking bid article.
Since a 2nd seat Weak 2 bid should always have a good suit, it is best to use 2NT to ask for a Feature. If you and your partner agree to preempt aggressively in 1st seat, we recommend playing Ogust opposite a 1st seat Weak 2 to get a description of the preempter's hand.
