‘Pre-emptive’ means getting ahead – in the case of bidding, we are getting in early with a higher-level bid because that makes it harder for our opponents to open the bidding in the normal way at the one level.

Often, you can make these higher-level contracts that you bid because of the distributional strength of your hand but even if you can’t make enough tricks, you you might well have prevented your opponents from finding their way to a contract they can make and that will get you a good result.

These bids are very descriptive, so you should take a ‘one and done’ approach and not bid again unless your partner makes some kind of enquiry bid (see blelow). Your partner may well raise your suit to get even more in the way but when they do that you should not bid again.