EW Vul W Dealer	♠ 6 ♥ K 10 9 7 6 4 2 ♦ Q 9 7 4 ♣ 2
♠ A 10 4 3 2 ♥ 3 ♦ K J 8 ♣ A K 10 5		♠ K J 9 8 5 ♥ - ♦ A 10 6 3 ♣ Q 9 8 4
	♠ Q 7 ♥ A Q J 8 5 ♦ 5 2 ♣ J 7 6 3

We play youth style pre-empts, especially favourable. At the table I auto bid 5♥ but I’m not sure if this is a good idea? The opponents only bid to 5♠ but it became clear very quickly that they were making 6 or 7. Is it too pessimistic to assume they are making a slam and should I refrain myself from encouraging them?

Hi Josh,

Youth style or not, I think North’s hand is certainly a prototypical hand for a favourable 4♥ preempt for sure (7-4, singleton spade).

Over East’s 4♠, I would bid 5♥ as South. In these spots, sometimes passing can work well as the opponents may think that the 4♠ bid was pressured by the 4♥, and thus West may not make a move over their partner’s 4♠ bid. However, because East’s bid was just 4♠, the reason for the 5♥ bid is that E-W cannot be sure how much slam potential they have. And because E-W are hardly in a forcing pass scenario (i.e. East might’ve bid 4♠ with distribution and long trumps), I wouldn’t start thinking that the 5♥ bid would ‘encourage’ them to bid a slam, but instead opener may just double to “take the money” (or even if they want to bid on, the 5♥ bid removes the ability for them to ask for key cards).

Essentially, it is a guessing game for E-W after South’s 5♥ bid, and let’s assume they guess right, who’s to say that opener wouldn’t have moved on anyway had we passed?

Having said that, sometimes there can be a slight danger from the 5♥ bid – that is, if this gets passed around back to East, he may decide to compete to 5♠ – and now for the opener, knowing that East is willing to push to 5♠ by himself, opener will likely raise to 6♠. But of course, sometimes this scenario doesn’t play out, and that West may double 5♥, and now East is unsure whether to remove it or to sit it.

In these spots, I tend not to overthink it and just make the ‘normal’ bid. Sometimes they might guess right and bid a slam, but sometimes they might just let you play it in 5♥X. Sometimes it won’t matter as they compete to 5♠ and don’t bid a slam. And sometimes, because the 5♥ bid prevented a 4NT RKCB bid, they might just stop short in a small slam instead of a grand slam.

Andy