Dubious Logic

Voidwood

Easley Blackwood gave his name to the ace-asking convention that bears his name but unbeknownst to him, he spawned all manner of other '…woods' much as Watergate gave rise to even more '…gates'.

Now every card-asking convention is treated to the suffix; initially variants on the theme borrowed Mr. Blackwood's surname completely – we had Roman Blackwood, Byzantine Blackwood and eventually, the extraordinarily popular, Roman Keycard Blackwood. But then there sprouted Redwood, Voidwood and I've just read an article on Kingwood and Queenwood ('Royalwoods').

Should you want to try one of this throng I can recommend Voidwood; at least when it works, it works well. The idea is to exclude from the ace-asking response (or more usually keycard, where the king of trumps counts too) any in a named suit. A clear example:

This last call announces a void in spades and asks for keycards outside spades. I strongly suggest you use responses of zero – one – two – two plus the trump queen. These hands from a club night at Ipswich and Kesgrave were bid as above:

West continued five hearts to show the red aces and the heart queen and East, with just a touch of optimism, bid seven hearts. East was entitled to think his partner had a little more, but the spade ace, which looked useful over three spades (usually a singleton), was the least helpful 'extra'. Nevertheless, you've got to a reasonable contract, are you going to make it when North leads a club?

It is always a trifle nerve-racking to leave trumps out in a grand slam but before you instinctively play hearts, you should count your tricks. With dummy's plain-suit entry gone, you cannot reach those diamonds after ruffing spades without drawing trumps. Ideally, you would like to be able to ruff a diamond if the suit is 4-2. You can do that only if trumps are 2-2. And if they are not? Something good will have to happen, diamonds will have to break.

Fortunately your trump spots are robust; begin by overtaking a heart with the queen and ruff a spade high. Overtake another heart. If trumps are 2-2 you can now play diamonds, ruffing the suit good if necessary, getting back to dummy with another spade ruff. If they are 3-1 or 4-0, ruff a second spade and return to hand with the diamond ace to draw the remaining trumps. You now cash trumps and the ace of spades leaving the diamonds until last. You never know, the king of spades might fall or someone might throw a diamond. In fact North, who started with the spade king and five diamonds, can make no satisfactory discard on your last trump: grand slam made.

If you do decide to take up Voidwood (or exclusion [Keycard] Blackwood) do have firm agreements with your partner about when it applies – I don't want you to play in your void suit! There are some suggestions on the website http://www.dubiouslogic.com/bridge/eadt/2009/ under the link to this article.

Voidwood

A few things to consider if you adopt this convention:

• The reason for choosing the response scheme of zero – one – two – two plus trump queen (even if you actually play something different over 4NT), is that though the example above conveniently shows a cheap ask – below 4NT – more often Voidwood will be expensive. Consider swapping diamonds and spades in both hands above; now you would have 1♥ – 4♦; 4♥(?) – 5♦. Leaving aside the question that responder might not have enough, you wouldn't want to be limited by a response that was disappointing and higher than trumps.
• A repeat splinter as in the example is a clear ask. Also when opener jumps to a level higher than a splinter in support of responder's suit. Even then, 1♥ – 1♠; 5♣ needs an agreement but is sound (2♣/3♣ natural, 4♣ splinter so 5♣ is Voidwood). However, 1♣ – 1♥; 4♦ is a case for serious discussion; here a 2♦ rebid is natural and (usually) forcing (a reverse) and most tournament players would regard 3♦ as showing short diamonds but they may think that 4♦ is either a higher value splinter or the first shortage-showing bid (3♦ being either natural or a strong raise-type e.g. balanced).
• Where Voidwood is a much safer is at the five level in opponent's suit. So 1♥ (3♣) 5♣ is a clear ask. 1♥ (2♣) 5♣ similarly but note that you need 3♣ for a raise-type and 4♣ as a splinter so 5♣ is cheapest.

The Play in 7♥

It has been noted that a trump lead from the 4=1=5=3 hand would almost certainly defeat the grand slam. With the ♣A still in dummy, the most straightforward line is to take two spade ruffs as you draw trumps and in this position:

West will lean forward to claim based on ruffing the diamonds good but North will disappoint him. Of course the squeeze would work (same line as on a club lead) but unfortunately the chances necessary to make the contract with diamonds 5-1 aren't good enough to discard all the 4-2 breaks (in favour of a proportion of the 4-2 plus 5-1 when the black honours accompany the diamond length).

It's a moot point, given you'll go off if diamonds are 5-1 anyway, if you shouldn't try ruffing three spades in dummy, using a diamond ruff back to hand: win trump in hand and if both follow, ♠ ruff, ♦A, ♠ ruff, ♦K, if you're still alive and RHO is 1-1 in the reds, ♦ ruff, ♠ ruff, ♦ ruff, draw trumps and get the ♣A and ♦Q as last two tricks. (If both follow to the ♦K you can claim with a high ♦ ruff and drawing trumps.)

Published Saturday 22.Aug.2009