The initial response

I'm not going to propose any great changes to the normal response structure. What I would like to do, though, is tightening up the precise requirements for the various responses.

Traditionally there are four basic types of initial response:

1. Negative (next suit up)
2. Suit positive
3. 2NT
4. Jump suit positive

Not everyone uses jump suit positives (eg. 2§-3©) but if you do I am assuming you use the bid to show a hand with a very long suit (probably seven) and with no slam ambitions - in other words lacking in first round controls. The jump positive takes away a lot of bidding space so should only be used if you are sure you're not going to need that space either to discuss what to play in or to investigate slam.

Taking a 2§ opener as an example, the negative response is 2¨ so to show a positive in diamonds you need to jump to 3¨. Continuing that logic, to do a jump positive in diamonds you actually need to do a double jump to 4¨. Similar considerations apply to positive responses in hearts opposite a Benjy 2¨ opener.

Before deciding upon the nuances of the various responses, consider what your partner needs to know. Any positive response establishes a game forcing situation. We may need a couple of bids to determine what denomination to play in but once that is sorted out opener's thoughts may well be turning to slam. It would be very useful, therefore, if our initial response gave him some indication of whether our hand is likely to be useful in a slam contract and what we need for that is controls - aces and maybe kings, rather than a general smattering of lower ranking honours.

It is therefore suggested that a suit positive should guarantee at least an ace and a (guarded) king (not necessarily in the same suit). If you've got the points for a positive, say 7+, but don't have an ace and a king then you must either bid 2NT or, if very distributional make a jump suit positive if your methods allow it.

It is fundamental to the rest of the suggested system that all hands containing at least an ace and a king should be shown with a suit positive (even if that means bidding stop 3¨ holding just the 2345 of diamonds) and that any other response (including 2NT) explicitly denies an ace and a king.

Modified Blackwood

Sticking rigidly to these rules may allow you to use a more efficient variant of Blackwood later in the auction.

Suppose you play standard Blackwood and the auction goes: 2§-2¨-2©-3©-4NT. What possible answers might be forthcoming to the Blackwood enquiry? Actually only two possibilities. Partner can have no aces or one ace. With more than one he could not have made the initial negative response.

You can obtain a lot more information by modifying your Blackwood responses whenever responder has already denied an ace and a king. In this situation, the following responses are suggested (whatever version of Blackwood you usually play):

Another improvement can be made in those cases where responder has guaranteed an ace and a king. It's a good general principle that you should never show the same card twice so if your first response has already guaranteed at least one ace, deduct that ace when responding to partner's Blackwood enquiry. This keeps the response a level lower than it would otherwise be.

Suppose you normally play Roman Keycard Blackwood with 5§ showing 0 or 3 key cards, 5¨ showing 1 or 4 etc. If you have already shown an Ace, your Blackwood responses can now show the number of additional key cards over and above the one ace already shown. So if you only have the one ace, you can respond 5§ to show that you haven't any others. 5¨ shows you started out with 2 key cards. 5© shows a total of three without the queen of trumps and so on.

The fact that your Blackwood responses are a level lower may even mean that partner can resort to Blackwood when otherwise he could not have risked it - particularly if the agreed suit is a minor. For example, suppose the auction goes:

2§-2©-3§-4§

Opener now looks at his hand and determines that if partner has two key cards then 6§ is a distinct possibility. If you are playing standard Blackwood, opener can't risk it because just one key card (and he knows partner has at least one) will take you beyond 5§. Playing the modified version, a 4NT enquiry is OK because with just one keycard responder will reply 5§ which can be passed.

If the opponents intervene

Before adopting this system, some agreement is needed on the effect of an opponent's intervention.

An immediate double of the (eg.) 2§ bid should be to our advantage as it gives responder two extra bids (redouble and pass). I suggest that pass should now be the negative response, denying an A & K, and that redouble should guarantee an A & K but show a flatish hand.

If an opponent overcalls then to take them off (should we decide to defend), we need aces and kings. I therefore suggest that double should guarantee an Ace and a King and imply a willingness to defend, should opener be tempted to pass for penalties.

A non-jump suit bid is a normal suit positive showing an Ace and King. 2NT continues to show "general values" without an Ace and King. The interesting question is whether it guarantees a stop in the enemy suit. I suggest that 2NT should show a stop. This may lead to problems if you have general values but no stop and no Ace or King. In this case you will have to pass, which will initially be interpreted as negative by your partner. However such a pass should be forcing so you will get a second bid to show your values.

The above are only suggestions. The important point is that the partnership should agree, unambiguously, which bids guarantee an ace and a king and which deny it, just in case Blackwood should crop up later.

Summary

Opposite a strong artificial 2 opener, the following bids guarantee an A & a K:

• A suit positive
• Redouble of opponent's double
• Double of opponent's overcall

All other responses (including 2NT) explicitly deny an ace and a king.

Having denied an ace and a king, Blackwood responses are 5§: Nothing, 5¨: One king, 5©: An Ace, 5ª: Two or more kings.

Having guaranteed an ace, only include second and subsequent aces (or key cards) in Blackwood responses.