When should you ask for keycards?
Blackwood : is surely the on bid which, throughout the year, produces the largest differences in results. The least of things is to know when it makes sense to use it.
The cocker spaniel reflex
What does a cocker spaniel do when he is happy? He wags his tail!
What does a bridge player do when he’s happy? He asks for keycards!
Your first mission will be to fight against this reflex and learn to ask yourself the right questions before taking the fateful card out of the bidding box: 4NT.
You must understand that Blackwood1 must be the final step on the road to a slam and that after using it, there is no way back to obtaining information about the rest of your partner’s hand. You therefore have to be sure that the knowledge of your partner’s keycards will allow you to bid the right contract.
Let’s see all that with the help of two examples:
At this point in the auction, you can use Blackwood because you know what to do after each and every possible answer.
Unless two keycards are missing, you’ll ask partner if he has the Heart King (5NT), because you can count thirteen tricks in that case (or if he has six Spades).
If one keycard is missing, you’ll bid the small slam without qualms because, even on a Diamond lead, you can quickly discard losing Diamonds on your Clubs.
But:
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Example 1, what does 4 hearts mean as a bid. Some of us are not as advanced and need to understand more details leading up to the decision. Hope the writer of this can expand the notes to include this. Thanks
I’m fascinated by the 2 clubs followed by 2 diamonds and a normal auction. I use the waiting bid too, or I thought I did. Lately, Argine has bypassed that and in one instance jumped to 4 spades with–yes–4 spades. I went down 3. At least I wasn’t doubled. The next time, Argine jumped to 5 NT, with 8 points, and when I bid 6 hearts, my long suit, Argine went to 6 spades. No longer trusting Argine, I bid 6 NT, which made. Argine had 5 spades. I was surprised Argine didn’t jump to 7 spades. No reason to report this, for nothing will change. Never has. And today I had the usual jump to 5 in a minor bypassing a decent 3 nt or just stopping at 3. Again, no reason to report it, because nothing will change. I do appreciate seeing the theoretical approaches, knowing that I wouldn’t dare use them in this platform.
Don’t understand the. Solution listing of all 3 bids, each = a number. Must be missing something obvious, besides the first one being correct.
I’m n
I’m new at this. It would’ve been helpful to understand her point system and what level is needed to get to slam.