Blum on Bridge Roman Keycard Blackwood Part III - The Queen Ask
	The most difficult part of RKC is the queen-ask bid. As stated previously, responder's bid of either 5 hearts or 5 spades states whether or not he holds the queen of trump. However, when responder bids either 5 clubs or 5 diamonds over askers 4NT he says nothing about the queen of trumps. Five clubs states simply responder has three or no keycards and five diamonds states he has one or four keycards. THOUGH IT'S AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE CONVENTION, IT IS MY SUGGESTION THAT YOU DO NOT USE THE QUEEN ASK BID UNTIL YOU HAVE BECOME MORE FAMILIAR WITH RKC. We will first assume the spade suit is trump. After responder's reply of either 5 clubs or 5 diamonds if the 4NT asker wants to know whether or not responder holds the trump queen he bids the next suit above responder's call. Over 5 clubs he would bid 5 diamonds. Over 5 diamonds asker would bid 5 hearts. If responder does not hold the queen he returns to the trump suit at the 5 level. If responder does hold the queen any bid outside of a return to the trumps suit at the 5 level indicates he has the queen. (Please reread this paragraph. It is the basis for what follows.) Thus, if responder holds the trump queen and no side suit kings he bids 6 of the agreed upon trump suit, in this case 6 spades. If he holds one or more side suit kings, he bids the lowest-ranking suit where he holds a side suit king at the 6-level. For example, assume responder holds one keycard plus the queen of spades, king of diamonds, and king of hearts. Over 4NT responder bids 5 diamonds (one keycard). 4NT asker now bids 5 hearts (the next suit above responder's call.) Responder bids 6 diamonds, announcing not only does he hold the queen of trump, but also the king of diamonds. By inference responder also states he does not hold the king of clubs because he would have bid 6-clubs, as it is a lower-ranking suit than diamonds. By the way, the 6-diamond bid does not deny the king of hearts because 6-hearts is a higher-ranking suit than 6-diamonds. If the 4NT asker wants to know if responder does hold that heart king, asker bids 6-hearts. If responder has it (he does in our example), he bids 7 spades. If he did not, he bids only 6 spades. Let me give one other example to bring out two important points. Assume responder holds three or no keycards, plus the queen of spades, king of diamonds and king of hearts (almost like our first example). Over asker's 4NT, he bids 5-clubs. Asker bids 5-diamonds asking about the spade queen. In this case only responder bids 5-hearts to show his heart king because 5 hearts is cheaper than 6 diamonds. He is able to make this call because ANY bid other than a return to the trump suit states he also has the spade queen. The second point is that when responder bids 5-clubs, 4NT asker may not know whether responder holds three or no keycards. If asker is unsure, he signs off in 5 spades. Responder will pass with none. However, if he has there, he would bid 6 spades because he knows 4NT asker would never start RKC with no keycards. If the trump suit is hearts, a problem arises if responder has one or four keycards and bids five diamonds over asker's 4NT. Had responder bid 5-clubs, zero or three keycards, there would have been no problem as asker would bid 5 diamonds queen ask. Responder can safely bid 5 hearts, denying the queen because the 4NT asker can pass, remaining at the five-level. Thus, if responder does bid 5 diamonds, it is probably best to forego the queen ask and bid 5NT directly asking for kings. If asker holds the queen there is, of course, no problem. But if asker does not, it could present a problem, as it's a card unaccounted for. The final chapter of RKC is known as "Exclusion Blackwood." Assume you are the asker and have a void in a side suit. You opened 1-spade and partner jumped to 3-spades. Any jump to the five-level by in a side suit by asker is keycard showing a void in that suit. Responder, when counting his keycards, does not count the ace in the suit in which asker is void. Responder also bids up-the-line as if asker's jump to the five-level was 4NT. In addition to spade raise, bids at the five-level after transfers is also "Exclusion." 1NT-4 diamonds-4 hearts-5 clubs shows a void in clubs and assumes hearts is trump. You hold AK7654-KQ7-KQ65-void and open 1-spade. Partner jumps to 3-spades holding J732-A94-43-AQ63. You bid 5-clubs, RKC showing a club void. Partner, though holding two aces, does not count his ace of clubs when responding because it's in your side suit void. Thus, now counting only one ace, he bids five hearts (one or four). It's as if asker's 5-club bid was 4NT. Over 5 clubs responder's 5-diamonds would be three or none, 5 hearts one or four, 5 spades two without the trump queen, 5NT two with the trump queen.