{"id":1880,"date":"2011-02-23T00:22:23","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T08:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2013-02-15T22:16:50","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T06:16:50","slug":"olling-you-44-slam-bidding-%e2%80%93-blackwood-day-4-february-23-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/?p=1880","title":{"rendered":"Polling You #44: Slam Bidding \u2013 Blackwood, Day 4, February 23, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Blackwood Slam Bidding Convention in Contract Bridge<\/h2>\n<p><noscript>JavaScript needs to be enabled for polling to work. <a href='http:\/\/www.constantcontact.com\/survey\/index.jsp?cc=ViraWidPOL'>Online Surveys<\/a> by Constant Contact.<\/noscript><a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bridgehands-videos.s3.amazonaws.com\/Polling_You_44_Part_1\/Polling_You_44_Part_1.html\"><strong>Click here to view Part 1 of the video commentary<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>BridgeHands<\/em> members &#8211; after logging in, please scroll down to view text and video&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bidding slams are exciting &#8211; never a dull moment.\u00a0 Back in the late 1930s, Easley Blackwood came up with a conventional bid to ask partner to disclose the number of Aces.\u00a0 Being a manager for an insurance company and wanting to capitalize on his newly invented bid, Easley called his convention &#8220;Wormwood&#8221; (not wanting senior managers to think his card play was risky).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Easley also applied for a patent on Wormwood.\u00a0 But the name never stuck and the patent office scoffed at the idea of patenting\u00a0anything to do with\u00a0Bridge.\u00a0\u00a0Fortunately, his convention was loved by many\u00a0who simply called his treatment the Blackwood convention.\u00a0 And so\u00a0Easley&#8217;s Blackwood\u00a0bidding system\u00a0has\u00a0become\u00a0the beloved slam asking bid over the last 70 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Slam &#8211; Three Possibilities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Classic Suit Slams &#8211; Majors, Minors<br \/>\nUse 4 Notrump &#8220;Blackwood&#8221; to check for Aces<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Distributional extra long suits and two-suited Slams &#8211; Majors, Minors<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Use 4 Notrump &#8220;Blackwood&#8221; to check for Aces<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Balanced Slams &#8211; Notrump<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Use 4 Club &#8220;Gerber&#8221; to check for Aces (more in next lesson)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Blackwood Prerequisites:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. No worthless doubleton or void (instead use control bidding)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Suit Agreement (not Notrump contract)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>3. One player jumps with self-sustaining suit (usually a major suit)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Small slam<br \/>\na. 33+ distributional points<br \/>\nb. 12 tricks<br \/>\nc. 3-4 Aces or controls (singleton\/void)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Grandslam<br \/>\na. 37+ distributional points<br \/>\nb. 13 tricks<br \/>\nc. 4 Aces or controls, 3-4 Kings or controls (singleton\/void)<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The purpose of the Blackwood convention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Explore small slam<br \/>\na. Bid 4 Notrump to ask<br \/>\nb. Used to ensure sufficient Aces (3-4 or controls\/shortness)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Explore grandslam<br \/>\na. Promises Aces or all first round controls (void)<br \/>\nb. Follow-up bid 5 Notrump to ask<br \/>\nc. Used to ensure sufficient Kings (3-4 or controls\/shortness)<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Examples of Blackwood:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1H &#8211; 3H; 4N<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1C &#8211; 1H; 1S &#8211; 4S; 4N<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1D &#8211; 2H; 4N<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2C &#8211; 2D; 3S &#8211; 4N;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Blackwood Continuation Bids:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1H &#8211; 3H; 4N &#8211; 5H; 5N\u00a0\u00a0 With all Aces\/controls, King ask<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1S &#8211; 3S; 4N &#8211; 5C; 5S\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not enough Aces, signoff in 5S<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1C &#8211; 3C; 4N &#8211; 5D; 5S &#8211; 5N\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not enough Aces, 4S (new suit) forces 5N &#8220;to play&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Examples of Non-Blackwood Bids:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1N &#8211; 4N;\u00a0\u00a0 Quantitative slam invite &#8211; bid 6N or pass with minimum<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1N &#8211; 4C;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gerber Ace-asking over Notrump<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1N &#8211; 2C; 2S &#8211; 4N\u00a0\u00a0 Quantitative slam invite, pass or bid 6 Notrump<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1N &#8211; 2C; 2S &#8211; 4C\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gerber Ace-asking over Notrump<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Blackwood Responses after 4 Notrump, as 1H &#8211; 4N;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>5C = 0 or 4 Aces<br \/>\n5D = 1 Ace<br \/>\n5H = 2 Aces<br \/>\n5S = 3 Aces<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>5N = Even # of Aces and useful void<br \/>\n6x\u00a0 = Odd # of Aces and useful void (in lower ranking suit than trump agreed suit)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Blackwood Responses after 5 Notrump, as 1H &#8211; 4N; 5C &#8211; 5N;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>6C = 0 or 4 Kings<br \/>\n6D = 1 King<br \/>\n6H = 2 Kings<br \/>\n6S = 3 Kings<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Slam Bidding Tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Relax, take a breath, enjoy the moment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. evaluate, Evaluate, EVALUATE !!!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>3. &#8220;The one who knows, goes!&#8221; (Blackwood, Slam)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>4. When in doubt, invite &#8211; your partner will help<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Know when to instead bid controls<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Free, Premium and ULTRA members &#8211; please login to view video of additional hand\/s<\/strong><\/p>\nPlease login or register to view this content.\n<p>Additional video hand commentary for Premium and ULTRA members<\/p>\nPlease login or register to view this content.\nPlease login or register to view this content.\n<p><strong>Warm Regards, <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>BridgeHands<\/em><\/strong><strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blackwood Slam Bidding Convention in Contract Bridge JavaScript needs to be enabled for polling to work. Online Surveys by Constant Contact.Tweet Click here to view Part 1 of the video commentary BridgeHands members &#8211; after logging in, please scroll down to view text and video&#8230; &nbsp; Bidding slams are exciting &#8211; never a dull moment.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3468,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions\/3468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}