Slam ConventionsBlackwood is considered the standard -any exceptions are indicated here. Gerber is the most popular alternative over Notrump Openers. Many play Key Card Blackwood (KCB), which is an improvement over traditional Blackwood. With KCB, you can find out about the Aces, the King of trump and even the Queen of trump in some cases.SLAM CONVENTIONS
Gerber [ ] _______ 4NT Var. [ ] ____________
Interference over 4§ or 4 NT [ ] (Describe) _______
Other things to indicate are your conventions for dealing with interference over Blackwood.
If the bidding goes [. . . 4NT - 5¨! - ???], what do you do?The common solution is to play D0P1, pronounced Dopey. It is actually Double with zero Aces, pass with one. With more Aces, bid the next higher suit - Hearts with two and Spades with three, in this case.
Our Card in the Slam Convention sectionGerber [ ] _______ 4NT Var. [ ] __Mathe_____ Interference over 4§ or 4 NT [ ] (Describe) _D0PI______SLAM CONVENTIONS
We play simple Blackwood with D0P1, but we intend to put Key Card Blackwood in our system soon. It is better than standard Blackwood.
Mathe Asking Bids (Mathe) is a convention we use after a Limit Raise, when the responder may have a singleton. [1© - P - 3© . . . ] It asks for the singleton in order that the opener might try a slam, knowing there's only one loser in the singleton suit.
An example Mathe Asking Bid Sequence
N E S 1© P 3© . . . Limit Raise by South 3NT* 6©
P 4¨ . . . The Mathe Asking Bid finds a a singleton Diamond . . . A fortunate fit
(c) Robert D. McConnell, 1998 All Rights Reserved