Better Bridge in Barry County March 21 2013

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  5 ♥  Q 5 ♦  A 6 ♣  A K Q 10 9 6 3 2
West ♠  J 8 3 ♥  10 7 6 4 2 ♦  Q 10 9   ♣  5 4		East ♠  10 7 6 ♥  K J 9 3 ♦  7 5 3 ♣  J 8 7
	South ♠  A K Q 9 4 2 ♥  A 8   ♦  K J 8 4 2   ♣  ----

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

North None 4♥

 

North 2♣ 3♣ 3NT 5♥ 6♦ Pass	East Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass	South 2♠ 3♠ 4NT 5NT 7?	West Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

 

Today’s column takes a look at an extension of one of the Eight Common Conventions You Should Know. The Roman Keycard Blackwood Convention had been mentioned as a source of a future column, and here it is. The Roman Keycard Blackwood Convention, a fairly new convention publicized by Eddie Kantar, bridge author and expert player, is still developing and has a loyal following among modern bridge players. How does it work?

Based on the popular Blackwood Convention that all beginning bridge players are taught and use to reach a slam-going hand, Roman Keycard Blackwood Convention, often abbreviated as RKC, is a much more sophisticated convention. It works like this: instead of asking for the number of aces in a partner’s hand, with four being the sought-after number, Roman Keycard asks for a fifth card: the king of trump. This fifth card, once trump has been decided, along with the four aces helps the partnership tremendously. But there is more. Would you like to know if your partner has the queen of trump as well? There is a way in Roman Keycard to find out that piece of crucial information.

In today’s hand, North opened the bidding with the Artificial Two Club bid, promising 22+ points and determined to reach game and possibly slam. While the numbers for North are not quite there with 15 high card points and four length points in clubs, still with 19 total points and those eight spectacular clubs, can you blame North for opening with a strong bid? North has nine tricks in her hand alone. With a little help, three or four more tricks would place them in a small slam or even a grand slam.

As we have seen in an earlier column, the normal bid for South after a strong 2♣ bid is the 2♦ bid, a waiting bid. In this case, South is not waiting but is eager to tell partner North that she has five spades and at least 8+ high card points. North rebids the clubs, telling partner that her suit is clubs and that she has 5+ good ones. South rebids the spades, informing partner that she has six spades and that they are good ones as well. Being in a major suit is always a first priority in a partnership.

North bids the 3NT, as a game request, but South has bigger plans. Bidding 4NT begins the Roman Keycard Convention just as it did with the Blackwood Convention. Only this time, there is a request for five keycards, the four aces and the king of trump. Since spades was the last suit bid, the partnership is interested in setting the contract in spades unless something better comes up. The responses to Roman Keycard are as follows: 5♣ is three keycards or zero keycards; 5♦ is one keycard or four keycards; 5♥ is two keycards or 5 keycards without the queen of trump; and 5♠ is two keycards or five keycards with the queen of trump.

North duly responds that she has two key cards: two aces, one in clubs, and one in diamonds, without the spade queen of trump. South is happy with that news as she knows that together North and South have all five keycards, the four aces and the king of trump. South presses on to find out about kings and bids 5NT.

In the request for kings, Roman Keycard is the same as Blackwood with 6♣ showing no king, 6♦ showing one king, and so on. North bids 6♦ showing one king. It is time for action on South’s part. Where does South place the final contract? 7♣? 7♠? 7NT?

The best contract is 7NT with all of those beautiful clubs. With stoppers in every suit, it is easy to claim all thirteen tricks. If you chose 7♠ as your final bid, you would have had to be brave and hope for a three-three split in the trump suit. It so happens that the spades do split 3-3 and the contract is made at 7♠. If you chose 7♣, you would also have been rewarded with a grand slam in that suit. 7♣ makes easily with the eight clubs in the trump suit. All in all, the grand slam is reached by using the first cousin of the Blackwood Convention, the Roman Keycard Convention. Would you have been able to reach seven clubs, seven spades, or seven no trump without it? Probably some would have been able to reach that lofty goal. But isn’t it nice to know that there is a newer slam-going convention out there in the modern bridge world that would help you to reach one of bridge’s finest moments? Try learning Roman Keycard Convention. You may be very happy with your results.

 

Gerald Stein

March 7, 2013

Number of words: 991

Local Bridge Class News: Beginning on April 9^th, 2013, the second in a series of American Contract Bridge Classes, “The Play of the Hand in the 21^st Century” will begin at the Kellogg Community College Technology Building on Hill Brady Road in Battle Creek. This class will run from 6-8 PM. on Tuesday nights for eight weeks, finishing at the end of May. Call the Life Long Learning Program at KCC for further details and enrollment.