WHEN NOT TO USE BLACKWOOD
Presented by Rena Lieberman at the Watertown Sectional on December 9th

Whether you use regular Blackwood or Roman Keycard Blackwood there 
are certain situations when it is not appropriate to use any Ace 
asking bids.

1)	When you have a hand with 2 or more quick losers in a suit:

You hold:	KQJX, AKQXX, XX, AX  and the bidding proceeds as follows:

		1H	P	2C (gf)	P	
		2S	P	3H		P…..Slam looks pretty good…
so you bid	4NT	P	and partner shows 1 Ace (or 1 keycard)
You know that you are missing 1 Ace..but which Ace is it?..So you bid 6H and
the opponent’s proceed to take the Ace and King of Diamonds on the opening lead!
Problem: You asked the question….how many Aces or keycards do you have….and then 
when partner showed only one you had to guess whether to bid the slam or not..if
partner has the Ace of Diamonds you can probably make the slam…but if partner has
the Ace of spades you might have 2 diamond losers.
Solution: When you have a hand with 2 quick losers CUE bid instead to see if partner 
can Cue bid the Ace in the suit that you have 2 losers in. So let’s give the responder
2 different hands in the above auction and see how it works.

Hand# 1
		AX, JXX, QXX, KQJ10X….Bidding:

		1H	P	2C	P
		2S	P	3H	P
		4C	P	4S	P
		5H	P	P	P

Hand#2	XX, JXX, AQX, KQJ10X….Bidding

		1H	P	2C	P
		2S	P	3H	P
		4C	P	4D	P
		4NT	P	One Ace or Keycard
		6H

2)	When You Have a void:
You Hold:	KQJ10XX, KX, void, AKJ10X

The auction proceeds as follows:

			1S	P	3S	P
			4NT	P	1 Ace or Keycard…now what? Which Ace? If it is the 
	Ace of spades or the Ace of hearts you will probably make 6S…but if it is the Ace 
	of diamonds, the opponents can cash the 2 other aces (spades and Hearts)

Solution: Cue bid!

			1S	P	3S	P
			4C	P	4D	P… 
			4NT	P	If partner shows 1 Ace you will know that it is the Ace
					of diamonds (he already cue bid the Ace of diamonds)
					If partner shows 2 Aces you can bid a slam.(Partner
					cannot have 3 Aces he made a limit raise)

			1S	P	3S	P
			4C	P	4H denies the Ace of Diamonds
			4NT	P	1 Ace…you can bid 6S(you know it is the Ace H)

			1S	P	3S	P
			4C	P	4H	P
			4NT	P	2Aces
			7S partner has the Ace of hearts and the Ace of spades

Now you can bid slams intelligently and not be victim to the opponent’s cashing two winners when
you are at the 6 level! Good Luck!

Rena Lieberman