Slam Bidding

Question 1

How many combined points do you need to make a small slam?

Answer 1

33

Question 2

How many combined points do you need to make a Grand slam?

Answer 2

37

Question 3

What’s the problem with relying completely on points when deciding if you can make a slam bid?

Answer 3

If you’re missing Aces or Kings, the opponents can set you by leading those cards. In addition, because you’ve added Dummy Points to your hand evaluation, your opponents may have more points than your total would lead you to believe.

Question 4

What are the Blackwood and Gerber conventions designed to do?

Answer 4

Blackwood and Gerber are used to determine how many Aces (and perhaps Kings) the partnership holds .

Question 5

When do you use the Blackwood and Gerber conventions?

Answer 5

After you have determined that your partnership has enough points to consider a slam bid.

Question 6

When do you use the Blackwood Convention?

Answer 6

To use the Blackwood Convention, the following conditions must have been met:

1) The partnership knows it has at least 33 combined points.
2) The partnership has agreed on which suit to play the had in. (Never No Trump with Blackwood).

You don’t use Blackwood (or Gerber) to determine if the partnership has sufficient points for a slam bid.

Question 7

What bid sets off the Blackwood Convention?

Answer 7

4 NT

Question 8

What are Responder’s possible replies to the Blackwood 4NT initiating bid?

Answer 8

5C = 0 or 4 Aces
5D = 1 Ace
5H = 2 Aces
5S = 3 Aces

Question 9

Why is the Blackwood Response to 4NT 5C for either 0 or 4 Aces?

Answer 9

5NT is the second Blackwood initiator used to ask for Kings.

Question 10

After Blackwood has been used once to determine how many Aces the partnership holds, how does the initiator ask for Kings?

Answer 10

The initiator bids 5NT to ask for Kings.

Question 11

What are Responder’s possible replies to the Blackwood 5NT initiating bid?

Answer 11

6C = 0 Kings
6D = 1 King
6H = 2 Kings
6S = 3 King
6NT = 4 Kings

Question 12

When using Blackwood, what is the difference between the 4NT response ladder and the 5NT response ladder?

Answer 12

The response to 4NT (asking for Aces) uses 5C to do double duty as 0 or 4 Aces. The response to the 5NT Blackwood request uses 6C for 0 Kings and 6NT for 4 Kings.

This difference is because 5NT is used to make the second Blackwood request and therefore isn’t available to respond for 4 Aces.

Question 13

What are the 2 cases where the Blackwood Convention not likely to be useful?

Answer 13

Blackwood isn’t useful if:

1) the initiator has a void suit.
2) the partnership has agreed to play in NT (rather than a suit)

Question 14

When the partnership has agreed to play in NT, what convention is used to ask for Aces and Kings?

Answer 14

The Gerber Convention

Question 15

What bid initiates the Gerber Convention to ask for Aces?

Answer 15

4C

Question 16

What bid initiates the Gerber Convention to ask for Kings?

Answer 16

5C