Roman
Key Card Blackwood by Kathy Golitzen
Roman
Key Card Blackwood was developed because the king and queen of trumps are very
important in slam bidding. RKC counts not only the four aces but also the king
of the agreed trump suit, so there are five key cards.
The
responses to 4NT are as follows:
5
clubs = 0 or 3 keycards
5
diamonds = 1 or 4 key cards
5
hearts = 2 key cards without the queen of trump
5
spades = 2 key cards with the queen of trump.
Please
note that the queen of trump may be the queen or extra length in the trump
suit. With a 10 card or more fit
in trump you hope to drop the queen.
If you
think you are missing two of the key cards sign off at 5 of the agreed trump
suit. If you are the responder and
have responded 5 clubs or 5 diamonds and have 3 or 4 key cards, continue
bidding. Bid the suit where you
have strength, normally, your lowest Ace.
This bid tells partner that you have all the keycards and will give
partner a chance to investigate if you have a grand slam.
Before
you launch into a RKC auction, make very sure that your partnership knows what
the trump suit is. Many people play
when there is no obvious trump suit the last bid suit is treated as the agreed
trump suit.
Grand
slam investigation begins with the discovery that you have all five key
cards. There are two ways to
investigate for the grand slam.
Look
for the queen of trump: Bid the
ranking suit that is not your agreed trump suit. For example if spades are trump and the bidding has gone 4
no trump – 5 diamonds – 5 hearts asks for the queen of trump. 5 spades denies the queen of
trump. 5 no trump shows the queen
of trump but no outside kings. 6
clubs shows the queen of trump and the king of clubs. 6 diamonds shows the queen of trump, king of diamonds and
denies the club king. 6 hearts
shows the queen of trump, the heart king and denies the club and diamond kings.
Look
for Kings: 5 no trump checks for
kings. Remember that there are
only three kings to count. Some
people use the same responses for kings that they used for 4 no trump. The problem with this is that 6 clubs
is ambiguous and it is often more important to know which king is held by the
partnership than how many you have.
A better way to describe your hand is kings starting with the lowest
one; 6 of the agreed trump suit
denies any kings, 6 diamonds
denies the club king, but you still may have another king.
Remember
that further bidding after 4 NT responses of guarantees all the keycards! This is true for any Blackwood.
Examples:
OPENER RESPONDER OPENER RESPONDER
Spades J1096 AKQ4 AK864 107532
Hearts AKQJ109 7 K7 A84
Diamonds A K84 AKQ65 J8
Clubs A3 K8642 8 A107
THE BIDDING THE BIDDING
1
heart 2 clubs 1
spade 3
spades
2
spades 4
spades 4
NT 5
spades
4
NT 5
spades 7
spades pass
5
NT 6
clubs
7
NT pass
OPENER RESPONDER OPENER RESPONDER
Spades A108652 Q974 KQJ 8
Hearts 8 AQ42 AQ98 KJ86432
Diamonds KQJ10 83 A6 K42
Clubs AK Q103 Q943 K6
THE BIDDING THE BIDDING
1
spade 3
spades 1
club 1
heart
4
clubs 4
hearts 3
hearts 4
NT
4
NT 5
diamonds 5
spades ?????
5
spades pass
OPENER RESPONDER OPENER RESPONDER
Spades KQJ6 A4 AQJ3 9
Hearts J1062 AK9753 A4 KQJ10732
Diamonds A83 62 KQ7 AJ854
Clubs AQ K85 AQJ2
THE BIDDING THE BIDDING
1
NT 2
diamonds 2
clubs 2
hearts
3
hearts 4
NT 2
NT 3
diamonds
5
hearts 5
NT 4
NT 5
diamonds
6
spades 7
hearts 7
NT
OPENER RESPONDER OPENER RESPONDER
Spades 5 KQ54 J9865 4
Hearts 10864 AK95 AQJ3 K1095
Diamonds AKQ63 8 A3 KQJ762
Clubs KQJ A743 87 A4
THE BIDDING THE BIDDING
1
diamond 1
heart 1
spade 2
diamonds
3
hearts 4
NT 2
hearts 3
hearts
5
diamonds 6
hearts 4
diamonds 4
NT
5
spades 6
hearts
Ed Note: The following external links are provided by the web
developer.
Williams
Roman Keycard Blackwood