Slam Bidding using controls in Contract Bridge
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At some point in our Bridge career we learn that making a 12 contract slam require Aces and Kings, lots of them.  And once we learn the Blackwood convention and no more, our slam bidding follows the old cliche, “When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail!”

Yet here we go again with yet another discussion about more instances when to use cuebids as a critical alternative.  Be on the lookout to avoid opponents cashing out their Ace-King before you get a chance to pull trump and try to promote a nice side suit.  Ditto when you have a void and attempt to Blackwood-ask for Aces: “Which Aces was that, partner?”

So what’s wrong with the Blackwood Ace-asking bid, you ask?  Well nothing, when the bid is used in the right situation.  As we shall see, the prerequisite to bid Blackwood includes:

1. A good trump fit

2. Sufficient points – either High Card Points or distribution points

3. At least one control in each suit, to ensure the opponents do not hold the Ace-King on a side suit

4. No voids in a suit – otherwise the Blackwood response will be ambiguous since the unspecified Ace might be double-counted along with the void

Controls in a suit include (4 suits, 2 per suit):

1. Aces

2. Kings

3. Singletons

4. Voids

Cuebidding Technique:

1. Trump fit
a. Partnership agree on a suit
b. One player bids strongly, indicating a self-sustaining suit (or semi self-sustaining suit)

2. Partners cuebid controls “up the line” (lower ranking suit first)

3. Cuebidding typically begins at 4 level (perhaps 3 Spades after 1H – 3H)

4. Bidding the agreed-upon trump suit is a signoff request – nothing else to show

5. Bidding a non-conventional Notrump bid (as 5 Notrump) is generally “to play”

6. The one who knows, GOES! (bids Blackwood, slam directly, etc)

7. Slow shows – fast denies (bidding slowly shows extra honors/controls/strength/shape) [Read more…]