CONTRACT BRIDGE

Cue (NZERS), Issue 24, 31 May 1945, Page 34

CONTRACT BRIDGE

Slam-Bidding. The Blackwood 4-5 No Trump: v The Forcing Two Bid and the Forcing Jump Take-Out usually enable game to be reached with fair certainty. Slam is another matter. To bid it, command in all suits must be assured. Various methods of finding how many Aces and Kings the partnership holds have been devised. One of the most universal and popular of these is the Blackwood Convention. Its great merit is its simplicity. Before applying it there are two pre-requisites. First the partners .must have agreed on the suit in which the hand is to be played, and secondly slam must appear probable. Example: You open 1 Heart on 3J HT. Your partner bids 2 Spades indicating 3-2 HT. There is only one HT. missing so that small slam appears to be on the cards while a grand slam is conceivable. You are justified in going for slam after you have agreed on your suit. The Convention operates as follows. The bid of 4 No Trumps is a request to your partner to indicate how many Aces he holds. He replies as follows: holding no Aces —5 Clubs; holding one Ace—s Diamonds and .so on, so that if he holds four Aces he bids 5 No Trumps. In the event of his bidding anything below 5 No Trumps the original 4 NoTrump bidder may then bid 5 No Trumps. This is also conventional

and asks the partner to indicate how many Kings he holds. The reply is the same, i.e., 6 Clubs indicates no Kings; 6 Diamonds one King; 6 No Trumps four Kings. It is the duty of the man who started using the Convention to bid the slam if he thinks fit after obtaining a picture of his partner’s hand. If he signs off at the level of five his partner may of course take up the bidding by bidding 5 No Trumps in which case the original bidder must reply giving the number of Kings he holds. It is obvious that this Convention is a dangerous weapon in the minor suits as by the time the first round is completed you are almost certa'nly committed to a small Islam, but it does warn partners off impossible grand slams even there. In major suits and no trumps it is very useful. Example of the bidding:— South holds —S. AQx ; H. Jxxx; D. Kx; C. Ax. North holds—£>. Kxxx ; H. Axx; D. AJ ; C. xxxx. Bidding: S. 1 Heart N. 3 Hearts S. 4 N.T. N. 5 Hearts (2 A) , S. 5 N.T. N. 6 Diamonds (IK) S. 6 Hearts Here a grand slam is not biddable. As the King of Clubs is missing South therefore signs off at Six Hearts. Note that the Five Hearts bid has no connection with the agreed suit.