I guess most people would preempt to 3D with the East hand. I prefer not to. The spade void can be very powerful and if partner has 5 hearts, bidding 3D would complicate his bidding options. With my regulator, we do not preempt with voids or 3-card side majors. Also begin NV vs V, this 11-pointer is too strong for a direct preemptive action. But we do not consider this to be an opening hand. I would just wait and see what pard has in store for me. I can always preempt later. I prefer to let pard know what I exactly have or do not have by my actions rather than make him guess. That’s the reason our preempts are so restricted.

It serves us well in this example, as West then has an easy 3rd seat 1H opening bid.

If East decides to preempt to 3D at his first opportunity to do so, then is gets complicated. We have a 9-card fit in D, and bidding 1H (not forcing) may get us into a 5-1 fit. 3NT does look appealing, but it is a gamble as a spade opening lead will surely set you (unless you are lucky enough for the spade suit to be blocked, which does not occur too often) and East will very often not hold any spade stopper with his preempt. Sitting West with those cards (and not playing disciplined preempts said earlier) I would jump to 5D and hope this is our best spot.

Adding 3 distributional points for the extra Diamond suit length, we open 1D – besides, the suit is almost self sustaining even if partner holds a singleton. Partner bids 1H with slam interest, Heart/Club suit honors working plus a Queen in partner’s Diamond suit. Ah, it’s going to be a nice day after all… (wondering about LHOs Spades)

Regards, Michael