Bidding

[DrDouble]

I would be interested in what minimum points range people would advise 2 proceed with Blackwood. If I ascertain that the partnership has at least 32 points I start BW. I suspect this may be 2 conservative.

 

Also after ascertaining the partnership has less than 4 aces I bid the contract at 5. What do people feel about this. I have only been playing 12 months

[TylerE]

More good slams are bid based on shape, fit, and shortness than HCP. Also, as a rule, Blackwood is a tool for staying *OUT* of bad slams, not getting to slam. This is a distinction that many don't grasp. Basically the idea being that you should be in grand with all four aces, and in six missing one, and in five only if missing *two*. If you are unwilling to commit to that, you are better of taking a more cooperative approach, using cuebids or the like. The voluntary raise to five is also an under-appreciated sequence.

[kfay]

I use blackwood when I'm interested if we have a couple quick losers or not. I do NOT use blackwood if partner could make a response that says we should not be in slam but forces us there because we went past 5 of our suit.

[awm]

Agree with Tyler that Blackwood is overused.

 

But deciding when slam is a possibility based on point count can be useful. My guidelines would be:

 

(1) For a notrump slam you are supposed to have 33 hcp. This is a good rule, but assumes two very balanced hands (i.e. no five-card or longer suits). With a long suit you can make slam on quite a bit less -- it is probably reasonable to add about two points for each card in a suit over the fourth (although you have to be careful that you have enough controls).

 

(2) For a suit slam, if you have a good fit you can often make slam with a lot less than 33 hcp. My recommendation (based on the writing of Ron Klinger) is that if you have a good fit and there is a singleton in one hand, then you need about 27 hcp for slam if you don't count the KQJ of the short suit. If there is a void in one hand, it goes down to about 23 hcp (but don't count any of AKQJ in the short suit). If both hands have singletons then about 22 hcp can even be enough, but again you can't count KQJ in either short suit. For example:

 

♠AKxxx

♥x

♦Kxx

♣xxxx

 

♠Qxxxx

♥Axxx

♦AQx

♣x

 

This is why splinter bids are extremely useful -- you can find out if/where partner has a singleton and then discount the "useless" slow honors in that suit and possibly find a very light slam (if you have nothing wasted) or avoid a bad slam (if you have a lot of junk in that suit).

[skjaeran]

I only use BW when I know we've got the resources (=trick potential) for slam and don't have two quick losers in a suit, to check that we've got the appropriate number of keycards (or aces for NT play) for the level I'm aiming at (small or grand slam).