Hello, bridge pals. As usual on Manual Monday, we feature sixteen variations on one deal. This week’s deal is one that I played last week in my club’s chat game. I was North—dealer—and I passed with a lowly 2 points. East passed. My partner bid 2C. West passed. Clearly, South had the points. From here on out it was just me and partner bidding. Partner bid 4NT. I bid 5C to show zero aces, and that was the contract.
Now, did you spot the phantom to which the subtitle of this blog post refers?
The roving helper in our chat game certainly spotted the Phantom Blackwood. An amusing aspect of the chat game is detecting the involuntary reactions of the helpers. Some of them are a bit over-eager to jump in and advise even when not asked. That is mighty good of them, but it hinders one’s ability to think independently and to thereby learn from one’s mistakes. I say if someone asks for help mid-hand, by all means give it; but otherwise, stand back and let the chips fall where they may and then offer advice after the hand is played. Having said that, though, I should emphasize that we are all enormously grateful just to have willing helpers.
But back to this hand. Our helper did not interrupt with unsolicited advice. She did, however, have a minor reaction—not quite a spasm but in the spasm family—to the 2C-2D-4NT-5C sequence, and then she regained her inscrutable mask as we stepped out onto the rope bridge across the chasm.
Well, we made it across alive and booked 400 points for top board. It could not have gone any better, by golly!
Or could it?
After the dust had settled, the helper first asked us to explain our bidding. Partner said 2C, which usually shows 22+ HCP, was because of his 19 points and the long and strong clubs. Helper asked if he thought he had 8.5 tricks in hand, and he said yes. I think his void in spades gave him confidence that he could ruff a few tricks, but if so then this is misguided. One of my go-to sources for quick bridge info, bridgebum, says right up front: “First, Blackwood should not be used with a void.” Partner was very lucky that the opponents had a 3-2 split in clubs; with 4-1 or 5-0 they could have made trouble. But South made an assumption as to the value of his long suit and in this case he was right. This, of course, makes it hard for the helper to give a lesson about overbidding.
She then dropped the main bomb, reminding us that usually, Blackwood 4NT is used after a suit is agreed upon. We had not done any such thing—we were only to the point where I knew South had high points and he knew I had 3+. It was only because we had no other agreed-upon use of 4NT (there were no overcalls or 1NT bids for us to factor in), and perhaps because we were shaky on the convention, that we both blithely went along with it being a Blackwood bid.
Just as the helper’s initial slight spasm was amusing, it was also amusing to watch South calmly tell her that he had gone with Blackwood with the full intention of leaving us in 5C if that was my response, because the zero aces response just happened to line up with his long suit. This is some advanced (?) conjuring and there is in fact some logic to it; however, I do wonder if the bidding was strictly legal. I suppose since we Blackwood on our convention card, and we would have happily said, “Blackwood!” if asked by the opponents, we would not be penalized for the chance alignment of our ignorance.
Maybe we should call it Phantom Blackwood and enshrine it separately from plain old Blackwood on our convention card? A little something for bidding the minors up high.
Others have opined that South should have kept the bidding open so that we could discover our hearts fit and get to game in that suit. I think that is correct, and that is what the helper was trying to tell my implacable partner. Making that contract would have certainly made for more points, with a possible overtrick to get to 450. If only there were some way to find out, other than by just studying the deal…
Hey! I know, why not play it out with sixteen variations on dealer and vulnerability! Just load one of the following deal files into your bridge program and have at it every which way:
This is the link to the PBN file with 32 deals.
This is the link to the LIN file with 32 deals.
If you want to see how sets of deals are generated for this blog, or if you want to try to generate your own deals, check out my website and program that I use. This blog post has a link to the program website and to other useful information.