Cue Bidding
Most Bridge players believe that conventions like Blackwood and Cue Bidding to show controls are used to enable the partnership to get to a successful slam. This is incorrect. These conventions are used to enable the partnership to stay out of slams which will not be successful.
Cue bidding is often an effective way of finding out if you have the necessary controls to make slam. The usual procedure is, if slam is possible, to cue bid the cheapest Ace and then show further controls up the line. Ron Klinger, a very fine Bridge writer, suggests a different method which caters to the goal of staying out of unmakeable slams. He suggests that the first cue bid should show the cheapest control - Ace, King, singleton or void. The beauty of this method is that the suit or suits skipped over to make the first cue bid have at least 2 losers in them. If partner also has 2 losers in any of these suits, he knows right away there is no slam and signs off. For example, if the first cue bid is in Diamonds, the bidder is denying a club control. If Partner has 2+ club losers, he will sign off at game.
It may seem too ambiguous to cue bid controls in this fashion. However, Partner can often tell by looking at his hand what your cue bid means. And if there is any doubt about Aces, RKC Blackwood can still be used if the bidding has stayed below 4NT.
One caution in using this method is to be sure not to cue bid singletons or voids if the final contract is possibly going to be in NT. It could also be risky for a greedy match point player to "correct" a 6S contract to 6NT if the cue bidding process could have included singletons or voids.
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