[Lord Molyb]

I was south.

---

Why do I have to have 33 points to pre-empt in hearts?

[Stephen Tu]

It's not surprising that this isn't really defined for GIB, as most people don't open 6h unless they think they are going to make it. Far more normal to just open 4h with your hand, if not playing some sort of namyats/Kantar 3nt. Some may open 1h, some people might open 2c by special agreement though I don't like that approach.

4h is just way more likely to make than 6h, it's not worth losing the game bonus so often for the extra preemption; if opps compete in another suit there's no particular reason to feel you can't beat them, you do have the ace of your suit and partner might contribute stuff elsewhere. It just really really stinks to be in 6h-1 or 6h-2 when the opponents were going to let you play 4h making. You won't provoke the opps into a bad 6s overcall enough to make up for those. They will defend 6h doubled or undoubled, and you will usually lose to the 4h bidders except for the times when partner comes up with 3 winners.

I agree though that the DB should be adjusted to not bid 6nt over these slam preempts.

[lalldonn]

I don't know what to say either, though probably for a very different reason than you.

I mean, would you feel better if he passed and you just went minus with a cold game, all so you could "preempt" your opponents out of their cold 2♣ contract or so despite them holding a 10 card fit?

I wouldn't be surprised if GIB posted this hand on a human-discussion forum with the title "I don't know what to say!"

[RunemPard]

lalldonn, on 2013-January-09, 18:55, said:

I don't know what to say either, though probably for a very different reason than you.

I mean, would you feel better if he passed and you just went minus with a cold game, all so you could "preempt" your opponents out of their cold 2♣ contract or so despite them holding a 10 card fit?

I wouldn't be surprised if GIB posted this hand on a human-discussion forum with the title "I don't know what to say!"

+1 Just because I cannot stop laughing at the human-discussion forum.

[Lord Molyb]

Would you say the same thing if my hand was

---

just out of curiousity?

[lalldonn]

Opening at the 6 level is not a preemptive bid. It means you hope to make it. In other words, though you can't really quantify it in terms of points, and though gib shouldn't have raised you, gibs definition is a lot closer to true than yours is.

[helene_t]

6NT is a better contract than 6♥ I think. On a spade lead they will always find the club switch if the contract is played by South but not always when it is played by North.

More seriously, when playing with GIB you just have to play its system whether you like it or not. That 6-level openings don't have sensible meanings is something I can live with. It is more problematic that many doubles don't show anything, and that many high-level competitive bidds show a lot more strength than I would like them to show.