Hand of the Week 2 - August 10, 2020 - Glenna Shanahan - Preemptive Bids

 

Question: I was sitting South.  Larry Johnson was North. He gave a 2H bid, a preemptive, which was doubled.  I did not know what to do because I had two hearts and 10 points.  I bid 2NT.  I suppose I should have passed.  My 2NT made him bid 4H.  We went down 2 tricks. I guess the question would be, what criteria should a partner use to bid after a pre-empt?

Glenna:

His 2-♥️ bid should be 5-10 (some say 11), and your 10 pts is not enough to invite game so you must just pass. If you had 10 pts and 4 ♥️, it would be a different story—you would bid 3 ♥️ to keep your LHO from bidding and hopefully will make. If Larry opened 2 ♥️, your had an opening 1NT hand, but only 2 ♥️, you would bid 2NT.  That is an asking bid: Do you have an A or K in an outside suit so that if we play 3NT, I have an entry over there so  I can get back to the good ♥️.