Contract Bridge Conventions Aid Slam Bidding

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31378, 25 May 1967, Page 7

Contract Bridge Conventions Aid Slam Bidding

[Contributed by

J.R.W.]

The four-club request for aces is known nowadays as the Gerber convention from the American expert who developed and expounded it There is little doubt, however, that it was originally devised in the late 1930’s in Auckland, whence it quickly spread throughout the country, and it is still the most popular slam convention in New Zealand.

All over the country, whenever a player wants to know how many aces his partner holds, he bids four clubs, to which for one holding no aces the response is four diamonds, with one, four hearts, with two, four spades, and so on. The users of the convention maintain there is no confusion between the use of the bid in its conventional sense and as a natural club bid. In at least one case, however, to remove any lingering possibility of doubt, the four club bid is accompanied by an interrogative Inclination over the table and the pronunciation somehow of a decided question mark after it. Overseas experts generally prefer to use a Blackwood four no trumps call to check on aces, but many use Gerber as an immediate check on aces after a one or two notrump opening bid. A direct raise to four no-trumps can then show a hand too good to stop in game but not quite strong enough to ensure a slam. Both conventions are simple to learn and to apply, and deserve their great popularity. But every bridge player learns sooner or later that in a suit contract a specific singleton or void is often the key to making a slam. Many years ago the fertile brain of Ely Culbertson devised a method of locating such shortages. His asking bids are rather complicated, but on certain types of hand are invaluable. In brief, the bid of a new suit at the four level when a trump suit has been agreed, or a jump to the four or five level in a new suit, asks partner if he has first or second round control in that suit, i.e. ace or void, singleton or king. Without such control, or with the required holding but no outside ace, the responder signs off by bidding the agreed trump suit. With the control the responder bids the suit of which he holds the ace, and with two aces bids four notrumps.

The following deal from an international match between the Republic of China and New Zealand shows how the convention operates: N. S—AKJS4 H—1053 2 D—KB 6 C—A ' Vi. E. S—9 3 S—loB H—B6 H—AKJ9 74 D—932 D—Q7 C—J86542 C—QlO9 S. S—Q762 H-Q D—AJIOS4 C—K73 The New Zealand East opened one heart, passed around to North who called one spade. South raised to three spades, and his partner went on to game. East led the ace, then king of hearts. The declarer ruffed in dummy, drew, trumps and led the king, then the ace of diamonds. When the queen fell he was able to claim five tricks in spades, five in diamonds and the ace and king of clubs. At the other table where New Zealand was North-South, the bidding was very different: S. W. N. E. ' 1H Dble No 2H No 2S No 4H No 5D No 6S All pass After the opening bid of one heart, South made a slightly aggressive take out double. North, intent on exploring the possibilities of the hand, called two hearts which was game forcing and asked his partner to call a suit, so South replied with the cheapest bid of two spades. North’s four hearts was a Culbertson asking bid, and the five diamond response showed second round control in hearts and the diamond ace. North now had no qualms about bidding the small slam which was, of course, easily made. There may be other ways of calling six spades with assurance on this deal, but the asking bid certainly made it easy.

Visiting Sick.—A course of 11 lectures on visiting the sick began at the Methodist Deaconess House, Latimer square, last evening. The course, which is open to anyone to attend, is being conducted by Dr. G. M. Gray, and Deaconess P. Caukwell.