Exclusion Key Card Blackwood

 

Consider this hand:

 

♠ K876

♥ --

♦ AKQ654

♣ KQ3

 

Not too shabby!  It gets even better when Partner opens a Weak Two in Spades.  All we really care about now are the black suit Aces … we really don’t care if Partner has the A♥, that is very much a useless card.  Yes, it’s time for Exclusion Key Card Blackwood!

 

After the 2♠ opening, holding the hand above, just leap (majestically, of course) to 5♥.  This bid is RKCB, but with a twist.  It says “Tell me about your Key Cards, but don’t bother to include the A♥ in your answer, I don’t need that card”.  Yes, the suit in which we leaped so majestically is the excluded suit, and the normal assumption is that the Exclusion bidder is void in that suit … either that, or he is being tricky!

 

Responses

 

The whole world seems to have gone 1430 in their RKCB responses, which is fine by us.  But, playing Exclusion you should go back to 3014 responses.  Yes, it’s confusing, but Exclusion takes up so much space that the Exclusion bidder is usually interested in only one or two cards … when responder has neither of them, he is apt to take the bidding too high if he sticks with 1430.  Let’s return to our original example by way of illustration:

 

♠ QJT432                   ♠ K876

♥ A43                          ♥ --

♦ 72                             ♦ AKQ654

♣ 94                            ♣ KQ3

In this auction, you will not be happy when Partner responds 5♠, showing 0 Key Cards outside of the Heart suit.  But you will be delighted that you are not playing 1430 Exclusion, because that would get you overboard.

 

♠ AJ9432                    ♠ K876

♥ K75                          ♥ --

♦ 843                           ♦ AKQ654

♣ 6                              ♣ KQ3

Here, over 5♥, the response will be 5NT, and 6♠ is reached.

 

♠ AJ5432                    ♠ K876

♥ 875                           ♥ --

♦ 82                             ♦ AKQ654

♣ A6                            ♣ KQ3

This time, the response to Exclusion is 6♣ (two without the Q♠), and 7 is easily reached.

 

Basic Rules

 

The question we now ask is … when is a bid considered to be Exclusion?  Here are two basic rules:

 

(a)    The bid must be a leap to the 5-level, or to 4♠ with Hearts agreed

(b)   It must be apparent that this leap cannot be natural

 

Sample Auctions

 

1♠        5♣             Natural

 

1♠        2NT

3♠        5♣             Exclusion

 

1♥        4♠             Natural

 

1♥        2♣

2♥        4♠             Exclusion, with Hearts as the agreed suit, and, of course, Spades as the

                              excluded suit.

 

1♣       1♠

2♠        5♣             Exclusion!  It hardly makes sense to agree a major and then leap to 5 of a minor.

 

© BES, Inc

All Rights Reserved