IMPROVE YOUR PLAY

With Larry Matheny

The Blackwood convention is quite valuable but often misused. Its primary function is to keep you out of slam when you are missing two aces. It’s usually unwise to use it without a first or second control in every suit or the opponents may still have two cashing tricks.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

Hand 12-50
Dlr	S
Vul	E/W

	AK7
	Q8
	Q92
	AKQ62

	K642
	J7
	J1098543

	10865
	AJ1097
	1043
	7

	QJ9432
	53
	AK865

West	North	East	South
-	-	-	1
Pass	2	Pass	2
Pass	2	Pass	3
Pass	4	Pass	4
Pass	Pass	Pass

Bidding: South opened 1 and North was thinking slam. North’s 2 response was a game force and his 2 rebid set the trump suit. After South rebid diamonds, North bid 4 to show a club control. This partnership’s cue bids show first or second round controls so when South failed to cue bid hearts, North reluctantly stopped in game.

Play: With the auction providing a road map, West led a low heart to his partner’s ace and won the return with the king. South soon claimed the remainder of the tricks and was relieved they had stopped in game. When he looked at the other scores he saw only one other pair stopped below slam. The horrible news was that everyone who bid the slam made it. It turns out lacking a first or second round control in hearts did not prevent others from bidding Blackwood and blasting into the slam. The West players were unwilling to underlead their king of hearts and that was that.

Sometimes being correct is not enough satisfaction. North-South each let out a sigh and took out the cards from the next board.

Copyright ©2012 Larry Matheny