Blum on Bridge Roman Keycard Blackwood Part II - Finding Kings
	Before proceeding further I want to digress for a moment to give you three most important rules. As responder if you hold five of the agreed upon major trump suit that partner has opened, this means that between the partnership you hold 10 trump. Otherwise partner would not have opened the suit with less than five. Thus, holding 10 trump between the two of you respond as if you hold the queen of trump whether or not you actually hold it. The reasoning is obvious as only three trump are outstanding and the queen will either drop or quickly be found and can be finessed against. The second rule is if after responder's announcement of the number of his keycards you find that between the partnership you do not hold all five keycards (all four aces plus the king of the agreed upon trump suit), you must sign off at the five level. Therefore you cannot ask for kings. Finally, even when you use RKC any time 4NT is bid directly over an opening bid it is Blackwood and ace asking. Examples are 1 spade-4NT and 2 hearts-4NT. The 4NT asker is Captain of the hand and after hearing about the number of aces and kings you hold gets to set the final contract. Last week we determined that over the 4NT ask bid, 5 hearts denied the queen and 5 spades acknowledged holding the queen. Both bids also announced responder held exactly two of the five keycards. If the 4NT asker does not hold the three remaining keycards he must pass the 5 hearts bid if the agreed upon trump suit is hearts or he must bid 5 spades, a sign-off, if the agreed trump suit is spades. However, if the 4NT asker does hold the remaining three keycards he may now ask for kings by bidding 5NT. Unlike Blackwood, responder does not show the number of kings he holds. Instead he shows specific kings beginning with the lowest. If he has no side suit kings he returns to the trump suit at the six level. Thus, if spades is the agreed upon trump suit over 5NT responder bids six spades announcing he has no side suit kings. REMEMBER HE HAS ALREADY SHOWN THE KING OF TRUMP. His bid over 4NT was a keycard bid and one of the five keycards is the king of trump. If the responder holds one or more side suit kings, he bids the lower king first. Suppose he has one king, the king of diamonds. By bidding 6 diamonds over 5NT he tells the asker two things. One, he holds the king of diamonds and two he does not hold the king of clubs or else he would have bid six clubs had he held both the club and diamond king because clubs is a lower suit than diamonds. Suppose he does hold both minor suit kings. He will bid six clubs but the asker is in the dark as to whether responder holds the diamond king. The asker now bids 6 diamonds himself. This is an asking bid. Responder tells the asker he also has the diamond king by bidding SEVEN of the agreed upon trump suit. Had he not held the diamond king he would have signed off at six of the agreed upon trump suit.Another fantastic advantage of RKC is that responder is able to show the asker his useful void if he has one. Over 4NT if responder bids 5NT directly he announces an even number of keycards, either two or four, plus a void in an unnamed side suit. If responder over the asker's 4NT bid jumps to six of a suit other than trumps, he states holding an odd number of keycards, either one or three, and a void in the suit into which he jumped. For example, the auction goes as follows: 1 heart-3 hearts- 4NT-6 diamonds. The 6- diamond call tells asker responder has an odd number of keycards, either one or three, plus a diamond void.Up to this time we have dealt with only major suits. Care must be taken when using RKC when the trump suit is a minor. If the trump suit is diamonds, the 4NT asker should have at least two keycards because if responder bids 5 clubs or 5 diamonds, he can always bid 5 diamonds over 5 clubs or pass 5 diamonds. However, when the trump suit is clubs it becomes touchy. I believe the 4NT asker should have a minimum of three keycards because though he can pass 5 clubs (three or none), he must bid 6 clubs if the responder bids 5 diamonds (one or four). In this one instance the partnership will be in slam with only four of the five keycards.