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  Bridge Tips and Strategies

Roman Keycard Blackwood (Part 2)
By Fred Gitelman

For more information on the RKCB convention, don't miss Part 1 of Fred's article.

This second part of my article on Roman Keycard Blackwood is for two groups:

Those of you that have been playing Roman Keycard Blackwood (RKCB) for a while and would like to learn ways to improve your results with this convention.

Those of you that have read my introduction to RKCB and are dying for more. I should warn this group -- I think you should try to master my first article before trying the stuff in this one!

Several of the suggestions I will be making in this article are based on the following principle:

The one (or four) keycard response is more frequent than the zero (or three) keycard response.

This may seem absurd to you. In fact, I have no way to justify this claim except by experience * the one or four keycard response just seems more common than zero or three.

This is the main reason that I prefer to play the 1430 version of RKCB. In RKCB 1430, the 5 Club response to RKCB shows one or four keycards, while the 5 Diamond response shows zero or three keycards. In the original form of RKCB, it is the other way around.

1430 has two main advantages over regular (0314) RKCB:

1.     When Hearts is the agreed trump suit and the response to 4NT is 5 Diamonds, there is no room to ask about the Queen of trump without committing to slam (5 Spades is the Queen ask in this auction). This leaves the RKCB bidder in a bind when exactly one keycard is missing and the RKCB bidder does not hold the Queen of trump. Since the zero or three response doesn't seem to happen as much as the one or four response, it is nice that 1430 uses 5 Diamonds to show zero or three (which minimizes the frequency that the described problem will arise).

2.     1430 makes life much more comfortable for the 4NT bidder when Clubs is the agreed trump suit. Since the 5 Diamond response takes the partnership above 5 Clubs (which likely is the limit of the hand if two keycards are missing) it is a good idea to make sure this happens as infrequently as possible. 1430 RKCB achieves this (since 5 Diamonds show the less common zero or three response).

If you are an RKCB veteran, you have probably been involved in these kinds of situations just mentioned, where the RKCB response gets the partnership too high or when there is no room to ask about the Queen of trump. Perhaps the most common RKCB disaster takes place when a minor suit is agreed and responder's 5 Heart or 5 Spade response to RKCB revealed that two keycards are missing * the partnership is doomed to play in a poor (or impossible) slam contract. There are some solutions to these sorts of problems, which I will describe soon. First, I must mention what should be an obvious truth about RKCB that relates to this subject:

Do not bid RKCB unless you are prepared for every response your partner might make!

If it is possible that your partner's keycard response will get you overboard, then it is almost certain that RKCB is not the right bid to make.

There is one other “getting too high” problem with RKCB of which you should be aware. Suppose that Hearts is the agreed suit, you have one keycard and you want to bid RKCB. You do not have the Queen of Hearts, however, and it is possible that your partner has that card along with two keycards. Do not bid RKCB as your partner's possible 5 Spade response (showing two keycards and the Queen of trump) will get you overboard! I have seen some excellent players with some serious egg on their faces after suffering this particular RKCB disaster.

So I highly recommend not using RKCB (1430 or otherwise) if there is a danger that partner's response will get you too high. There is a good trick you can use in these circumstances that will sometimes help:

If you want to bid RKCB but partner's response could get you too high, try to get partner to bid RKCB.

For example, take the situation where Hearts are agreed and you have one keycard and no Queen of Hearts. You want to bid RKCB but you fear the 5 Spade (two with Queen) response. Suppose partner has just cuebid 4 Clubs.

Instead of bidding RKCB try cuebidding 4 Diamonds. Perhaps partner will bid RKCB. Then your 5 Club (1430) or 5 Diamond (0314) response will tell partner that two keycards are missing and the bidding will be low enough to stop in 5 Hearts. What if partner does not cooperate (by bidding RKCB) for you and just signs off in 4 Hearts? Well, now you can try cuebidding 4 Spades to give him one last chance! If partner still refuses to bid RKCB, you may be able to figure out why and judge accordingly. Also, partner will probably figure out why you, a great lover of RKCB, have failed to use the convention yourself.

Always think about the inferences that can be drawn from your partner's decision to cuebid when it seemed like he could have used RKCB instead.

Some partnerships have gone so far as to define a 4 Spade cuebid when Hearts is the agreed suit as a virtual transfer to RKCB * that is, cuebidding 4 Spades when Hearts is set as trump almost demands partner ask for keycards with 4NT. This approach has another nice benefit.

Remember I discussed how the 5 Diamond response to RKCB when Hearts are agreed does not allow the trump Queen to be resolved at the five-level? Suppose, playing 1430, you have four keycards but no Queen of trump (Hearts). If you bid RKCB and partner responds 5 Diamonds (showing zero keycards), you can't find out about the Queen of Hearts at a convenient level. If you can get your partner to bid RKCB, however, (say by using the 4 Spade “transfer to RKCB”), your response will be 5 Clubs (showing one or four) and partner will have room to ask about the Queen of Hearts at the five-level.

An even more popular (and probably more theoretically sound) way of dealing with all of the RKCB problems where Hearts are trump is to use the 4 Spade bid itself to ask for Keycards. The 1430-style responses are as follows (switch the first two for 0314 responses):

4NT

one or four keycards

5

zero or three keycards

5

two or five keycards without the Queen of Hearts

5

two or five keycards with the Queen of Hearts

Notice that this variation of RKCB solves both of the problems with RKCB when Hearts is trump:

·          The RKCB never gets you above 5 Hearts (which could be too high). When 4 Spades is used as RKCB, the highest responding step is 5 Hearts. Not so with 4NT RKCB where a 5 Spade response is possible.

·          There is always room to ask for the Queen of Hearts below the 5 Heart level when 4 Spades is used as RKCB. The 5 Diamond response to 4NT RKCB does not allow this.

There are many fine players that would claim that being able to cuebid 4 Spades when Hearts is trump is too valuable a bid to give up (which playing 4 Spades as RKCB forces you to do). The answer is simple when you think about it * since you don't need 4NT to bid RKCB anymore when Hearts are trump, bid 4NT to show a cuebid in Spades! In other words, we are switching the meanings of 4 Spades and 4NT when Hearts are trump.

In my experience, the only real problem with using 4 Spades as RKCB for Hearts is that sometimes it is not clear whether 4 Spades should be a natural bid or RKCB. For example:

Opener

Responder

1

2

3

3

4

4

Is 3 Spades a cuebid in Spades, moving towards a Heart slam, or a bid that shows true Spade support? If 3 Spades is a cuebid, it is not unreasonable to use the subsequent 4 Spade bid as RKCB. If 3 Spades promises support then it makes much more sense to play 4 Spades in this auction as a suggestion of a final contract.

Strong suggestion:
If you are going to play bids besides 4NT as RKCB, you and your partner should be very careful to define EXACTLY when these bids apply.

If you do not take the proper time to do this, I guarantee that it will just be a matter of time before your non-4NT RKCBs get you into trouble. Obviously if one partner thinks that a bid is RKCB while the other partner thinks that the same bid is natural, there is serious potential for disaster!

You may have noticed that 4NT RKCB works fine when Spades is trump, but that 4 Spades RKCB is better when Hearts is trump. Not surprisingly, it turns out using 4 Hearts as RKCB when Diamonds is trump and 4 Diamonds as RKCB when Clubs is trump, are also big improvements. Again, please agree with your partner on clear definitions of when these non-4NT RKCBs apply before you start using them!

The concept of using bids lower than 4NT to ask for Keycards has been given a few different names in Bridge literature. Kickback and Redwood are probably the two most common names that players use for such bids.