[ArcLight]

White on White RHO opened in 1st seat 3♥ holding something like:

♠ K x
♥ K T 9 7 5 3 2
♦ x x x
♣ A

Afterwards the said they rejected opening 1♥ because of the crummy heart suit, and the potentially wasted Spade K?!?!?!.

1 - they had opening bid strength
2 - if you open a 3 bid with that strength, you pard will never expect it.
3 - it doesnt take that much to make game, and if pard has the ♥Ax and ♠A it has a reasonable chance on a split or finesse if the Q or J drops with LHO.
What about 1♥ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3♥ - 4♥?


I think this is too strong for the "typical" 3H bid, so should their pard alert that their 3 bids may be of opening bid strength? You can always say "you should ask" but it gets a little tiresome to interrogate their pard as to what they expect from their pards 3♥ bid, especially since the standard 3 bid shows 7 cards and little outside.

What are your criteria for 3 bids for the 4 suits?

[whereagles]

It's not unreasonable to open that 3♥ playing matchpoints. At teams, 1♥ seems much more adequate.

As for criteria.. you have 1 million different ones (the nr. of bridge players in the world).

[cherdano]

I open this 1♥, but in real life everyone (in ideal life: every partnership) has his own criteria for 3♥.

Arend

[ArcLight]

Arend, (and everyone else)
What are YOUR criteria for a 3 level bid?

[whereagles]

ArcLight, on Mar 7 2006, 02:43 PM, said:

Arend,  (and everyone else)
What are YOUR criteria for a 3 level bid?

There are no criteria. Preemption is more a matter of judgement and feel than a technical thing. For instance, I once held, at all vuln, 1st seat:

♠ xxx
♥ x
♦ xxx
♣ QJTxxx

No technical criteria will advise a 3♣ opener here, but I looked at LHO and he seemed to be counting points, aching to bid. Immediately I popped out the stop card and bid 3♣.

[hrothgar]

You really need to take issues like

Seat
Vulnerability
Partner's sense of humor into account.

Third seat, white on red I've happily opened 3♥ on hands like

xx
KQJ9
xx
xxxxx

Admittedly, this is an extreme example but the basic point holds.

[Fluffy]

3♥ for me, I used to open 1♥ with that, but I hate stiff aces so much

[000002]

An offensive preemption has 1 defensive honor commonly,it's miracle when he has 2 or more.

i recommend 1♥ opening and to preempt 3♥ when locates on the 3rd position.





regards

[jdulmage]

Simply put, if I'm in 3rd seat, I want to cram the bidding room as much as possible, so I'll open 3♥. Otherwise, it is 1♥ in all other seats.

[pclayton]

I don't think I've ever preempted in 1st or 2nd chair with 2 big outside cards.

3rd seat its a very reasonable 3H call.

[benlessard]

The main criteria is this


Do you allow partner to pass with 7h and badly located honnors ?



ak
xxxxxxx
Qx
xx

if no...
do you allow him to open super light ?

if no then 3h bid is the correct bid.


I like to play that we rarely pass a hand with 6 or 7M.


So if its not strong to open at the 1 level then its a preempt.

only etreme off-shapes distribution are passed and hand with no high-card are opened 1 level lower.


jxxxxx
akq
xxx
x


xxxxxxx
xx
xxx
x


i have no problem opening 2s with both of these hands.


So discuss with your partner if you allow passing with 7 long suit.

discuss how light can your opening be.

and youll get your answer for most case.