North-South Vulnerable
Dealer West
 

	NORTH  ª KJ1052  © 9743  ¨ J  § AJ6
WEST  ª 94  © KJ6  ¨ Q10832  § 953		EAST  ª 8763  © AQ10  ¨ 9654  § 84
	SOUTH  ª AQ  © J52  ¨ AK7  § KQ1072

The problem with using the Blackwood convention to ask for aces is that four no-trumps cannot be used as a natural bid which can be passed by a partner whose hand is too weak to proceed to a slam. In social bridge, players seek to overcome this by extending the Gerber four clubs convention, intended originally to cover situations where no-trumps has been selected as the final contract, to cover contracts in a trump suit. This is frowned upon by the experts because it restricts the use of the four club bid either as a natural bid, or as a cue bid or splinter bid.

One way to solve the problem is to limit the Blackwood convention to situations where four no-trumps is either the first or second bid made by partner, or when it is made as a jump bid. The above deal, which appeared during a recent duplicate competition at the Abingdon Bridge Club is a good illustration of the problem. When the deal appeared at our table, my partner, sitting North, decided that, as his moth-eaten collection of cards obeys the Rule of Nineteen, he would open with a bid of one spade. I decline to comment on the grounds that the Herald is a family newspaper and strong language would be inappropriate. Despite my nineteen points, I replied with a quiet two clubs (in our system, a jump to three clubs would show either a very good club suit - or a fairly good club suit, plus support for partner's suit). Partner then bid two hearts and I kept the bidding going with a "fourth suit forcing" three diamonds. When partner now bid four clubs (thinking from my reluctance to bid no-trumps that I had no diamond stops for a three no-trump game) I was now able to clarify my intentions by bidding a "non-jump" (quantitative) four no-trumps which partner was only too happy to pass. With three losing hearts, five clubs is defeated on a heart lead, so my contorted bidding appeared to have found the best contract. Trouble was, nobody found a heart lead. When West led his fourth best diamond and dummy's jack held the trick, declarer cashed five spades, five clubs and a further two diamonds, ending up with a total of thirteen tricks. When a black suit was led, declarer played off his ten black winners, leaving both opponents with three cards. When each opponent chose to keep at least one of his heart honours, declarer was able to sneak the thirteenth trick with his seven of diamonds. So much for theory. After this result, who needs fancy conventions, anyway?

Local News Wallingford Sara Tulip and Peter Russell produced the best performance by a local pair in this year's Oxfordshire Green Pointed Swiss Teams. Their team came equal fourth.
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