ROMAN KEY CARD BLACKWOOD

Imagine you have this hand, and hear your partner open one spade.

 ♠ A10X

♥ AX

♦ AK

♣ AQJ10XX

You need to know if partner has the King and Q of trumps and the King of clubs. If he has all of these cards then you should be in 7 spades. The only way to find out is by using Roman Key card Blackwood.

By bidding 4NT, when partner responds 5D (showing the King of trumps) you will now bid 5 Hearts. This is asking about the trump Queen and asks partner to also bid his cheapest king. If his response is 6 clubs, this would confirm he holds the trump Queen AND the King Clubs.

This is all you now need to bid 7NT. You can count 5 spades, 6 Clubs, and AK and A in the red suits.

Roman Key Card Blackwood

Once you are pretty sure that you have a slam to bid, you now will check for controls. The usual point count required for a small slam is 33. Just in case there is a possibility that 2 aces may be missing, ask your partner how many he holds.

The bid here is 4NT.

BEWARE. Only use this bid once a suit has been agreed. If not, then it is assumed that the last suit mentioned is the agreed trump suit.

4 NT asks how many of the 5 aces your partner holds. No, this is NOT a misprint. The 5th ace is the King of trumps.

Responses are: -

3 or 0______ 5 ♣

1 or 4______ 5 ♦

2 without Q Trumps 5 ♥

2 with the Q Trumps 5 ♠

5NT will then ask about Kings. Don’t forget you have shown information about the trump King, so DON’T count it again. Bid the lowest King that you hold.

If 1st response was 5 ♣ or 5 ♦ , then the next cheapest bid asks about the trump Q and other Kings.

If you do not hold the trump Q you will bid 5 of the trump suit. All other bids shows the Trump Q plus a king of the suit that is bid.

If the agreed suit is Hearts:-

Having bid 4NT….5♣ ----- then 5♦ will now ask about the trump Q

with the trump Q:

6♣ YES and the King ♣

6♦ YES and the King ♦

5♠ YES and the King ♠

5NT YES and no Kings

If the response to 4NT was 5♦ -- then 5♠ will ask about the trump Q and also any King. A bid of 6♥ will be denying the trump Queen, and any other bid is showing the Queen And the lowest K

The beauty of using RKC instead of old-fashioned Blackwood, is that as well as knowing how many aces and kings, you also can find out about the King and Q of trumps. There are variations to RKC, but this is accepted version. Again the important issue is that you and your partner play the same