Bidding in depth
Raise partner’s pre-empt to game when your high-card points plus your trumps in partner’s suit reach 17.
Partner has made a weak, obstructive bid — a weak two, a three-level pre-empt, or a weak jump overcall. Each shows a known long suit and limited high cards, so partner has already described the hand. That makes you the captain: it is your job to place the contract. The difficulty is that a raise of a pre-empt is ambiguous — more obstruction, or a try for game? — and there is rarely room to invite. You usually have to choose: game, or pass.
Add your high-card points to the number of trumps you hold for partner’s suit. If the total is 17 or more, raise to game.
Seventeen is the point at which the combined values, partner’s known length and your fit rate to bring in the game. It places the contract; it is not an invitation. Below seventeen you pass: a raise would only be more obstruction. The count rewards trumps for a reason: extra trumps opposite a long suit take extra tricks that high-card points alone would never show.
The rule does not switch off when the opponents come in. If partner’s pre-empt is doubled or overcalled, BidMaestro still raises to game on seventeen — competing for the contract rather than being pushed off it.
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