WARNING! The following post talks about BLACKWOOD. Blackwood is a bid used by more experienced players. If you are a new player do NOT bother reading this post. When you have played a bit more and know a bit more you can learn Blackwood. For now, do not bother.
Blackwood
Blackwood is a convention bridge players use to ask their Partner how many Aces they hold after the partnership has agreed upon a suit or, if no suit has been agreed upon, the last bid was not any number of natural NTs. In these auctions, a bid of 4NT asks their Partner how many Aces they hold. Bridge players call this 4NT bid Blackwood.
This could be bid after Partner supports your Opening suit:
Opener
Responder
1♥
3♥
4NT
This is BLACKWOOD. Opener, by bidding 4NT, is asking Responder to tell them how many Aces they have in their hand.
This could be bid after an opening bid of any suit:
Opener
Responder
1♣
4NT
This is BLACKWOOD. Responder, by bidding 4NT, is asking the 1♣ Opener to tell them how many Aces they have in their hand.
This could be bid after Partner opens and supports your suit:
Opener
Responder
1♣
1♠
2♠ (or 3♠ or even 4♠)
4NT
This is BLACKWOOD. Responder, by bidding 4NT, is asking the 1♣ Opener to tell them how many Aces they have in their hand.
This can be bid after Partner made an OVERCALL:
Opener (Dealer)
Overcaller
Responder
Advancer
1♠
2♥
Pass
4NT
This is BLACKWOOD. Advancer, by bidding 4NT, is asking the 2♥ Overcaller to tell them how many Aces they have in their hand.
What are the responses to Blackwood?
5♣
Partner I have either zero or all four Aces
5♦
Partner I have one Ace
5♥
Partner I have two Aces
5♠
Partner I have three Aces
Do you need to memorize this chart?
Not really. After the 4NT bid the first possible response you would make is for the worst possible case. Zero Aces. So the first possible bid after 4NT is 5♣. The second possible bid you would make after 4NT is the second worst response. So 5♦ would be the second worst response which is only 1 Ace. And so on. We need to group the worst response (zero Aces) with the best response (four Aces) because the Blackwood bidder should be able to tell which one Partner has.
There is quite a bit more to Blackwood that I will get to in the next few days. For now practice your responses to Blackwood.
On the following hands Partner opened the bidding 1♠. You bid 3♠ which shows about 11 or 12 points with four trump. Partner now bid 4NT which we now know is asking for the number of Aces we have in our hand. What is your response on each of the hands and what are you telling Partner with your bid?
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