The 24-part Bidding Toolkit series is available onlineat www.acbl.org/play/commonlyusedconventions.html.

Roman Key Card BlackwoodBlackwood, the ace-asking
convention, was developed
early in the history of contract
bridge as an aid to slam bidding.
Despite its frequent misuse, it
became a popular treatment becauseof its inherent simplicity. A bid of4NT (in most constructive auctions)asks partner to reveal how many
aces he holds using the following setof responses: 5 shows zero or fouraces, 5 shows one, 5 shows twoand 5 promises three. Easy.
Even when used properly,
however, there’s a problem thatBlackwood fails to address, namely,
the strength of the combined trump
holding. Consider this situation:
PartnerA74
J863
 10
AKJ62You
KQ
A742
AK85
Q98

Partner opens 1. You have an
18-count, but you decide to take itslowly by responding with a calm
1. Partner rebids 1.
Your hand is improving in value
as the auction proceeds. If you area Blackwood enthusiast, it wouldn’t
be unreasonable to bid 4NT at thispoint. After partner’s 5 response(two aces), it would likewise bereasonable to bid 6. Your trump
holding, however, will be a disappointment to partner. Barring theunlikely occurrence of the doubleton
K Q in a defender’s hand, declarer
will lose two trump tricks.
This example is just one of manycases where not only is the numberof aces held by the partnership a
key to making a slam, but also thequality of the trumps.
Enter Roman Key Card Blackwood(RKCB). This approach is “Roman”
because it’s a variation of an aceasking scheme developed by theItalian Blue Team. The phrase “KeyCard” refers to the way in which
this method improves on traditional
Blackwood by counting the fouraces and the king of the agreed
trump suit as “key” cards — a totalof five. Additionally, this method
allows the partnership to check on
the queen of the agreed suit.
Playing RKCB, the responses to
the key-card asking bid of 4NT are:5 zero or three key cards
5 one or four key cards
5 two or five key cards without
the queen
5 two or five key cards withthe queen
If the partnership is missing two(or more!) key cards, slam should beavoided. If the partnership is missing
a key card and the queen of theagreed suit, slam is iffy
unless the combined trump holding
is 10 cards or longer.
On the example hand, therefore,partner would respond to your 4NT
call with 5, showing two key
cards, but without the Q. Youwould then know that your side is
missing either (1) a black ace andthe Q or (2) the K and the Q.
Either way, slam would be a badidea. You should pass 5.
What about situations wherepartner’s response is 5 or 5, butyou still want to know about thequeen of the agreed suit? In RKCB,
the “asker” bids the cheapest suitafter partner’s response to ask if heholds the queen. Responder says “no”
by bidding five of the agreed suit.
OpenerResponder13 (1)
4NT (2)5 (3)(4)
5
5 (5)
Pass(1) Limit raise.
(2) RKCB.
(3) One or four key cards. Responder
made only a limit raise, so it must beone.
(4) “Do you have the Q?”(5) “No.”
Responder says “yes” by bidding
six of the agreed suit. In the aboveauction, therefore, responder could
reply to the queen-asking bid of 5
with 6 if he held the Q.
If responder has the trump queen
and a side king, however, he canshow both. (This can sometimes help
the partnership bid a grand slam.)OpenerResponder13
4NT (1)5 (2)
5 (3)
6 (4)(5)7
Pass(1) RKCB.
(2) One key card.
(3) “Do you have the Q?”(4) “Yes, and I have the K, too.”(5) “Just what I needed!”