Roman Keycard Blackwood-Beyond the Basics

Hi all,

One of the first conventions that usually gets embellished once we move from the novice level to the serious player is our ace asking convention Blackwood. Most of us quickly adopt an ace asking convention which includes the trump K and we call that convention Roman Key Card. We now consider the trump K the fifth ace and define our responses as if there were five key cards in the deck --four aces and the trump K.


There are two major types of response categories to 4N ace ask--0314 and 1430. The former shows zero or three key cards with the first step: 5C. The latter shows 1 or 4 key cards with the first step 5C. Since the partnership often signs off after "zero" responses, it makes sense that the key card positive responses remain the lower steps! Why? because further queries about the Q of trump can then be made at lower levels. The last two responses, 5H and 5S are the same in both methods: i.e. two key cards w/out the Q versus two key cards with the Q.

So with the trump K already located with the partnership or the opponents, advanced partnerships often play "specific K" responses to 5N, king ask. Responder bids K's up the line. Imagine how helpful it would be if I held AQJT(x)(x) of clubs and partner bids 6C! If instead my other length side suit is diamonds, I can continue asking for the dK by bidding 6D. "I heard about your CK, do you have the DK also?" The asker continues asking. Respond "yes" to the specific DK query by bidding 7. Respond "no" by signing off in six. Remember asking for K's promises all the key cards. If all the key cards are promised with the 5N query responder has a right to blast to the grand holding a solid side source of tricks -for example Qx,AQxx,AKQJT9,x in a heart contract. If my partner bid 5N, K ask with the hand above, I'd just bid the grand.

Over the 4N responses (5c,5d) there is often still room to determine whether the partnership holds the trump Q. For consistency sake and to pass along the most information possible, answers to the Q query are the same as answering to specific K's. Bid the next suit up to ask. If responder has the trump Q and the CK ,he/she bids 6C. If his/her cheapest K is the diamond K, he/she bids 6D. Pretty slick how that works. No Q? Sign off in the trump suit. For the Q ask, the partnership does not promise all the key cards, so be careful about blasting to the grand. The query could be made trying to figure out if the contract belongs in 5 or 6.

There are actually ways to show useful voids during key card queries. Most universal is a 5N answer to 4N query meaning even number of key cards and a useful void. With an odd number of key cards, bid the void suit at the six level.


Hope this is helpful,that you always get to the right level in your high level contracts and there is never a surprise when dummy hits the table. Please ask if you have further questions.

P.S. If you engage in an ace asking auction and out of the blue a bid comes up that you don't recognize, it probably means that partner couldn't bid 5N asking for Kings because he/she wants to play no trump. Here's an example in a confirmed hearts auction.

1H 2N! (Jacoby), 4H 4N (ace asking), 5C 5S --now in this auction spades is not K ask, it is not queen ask and no one starts queue bidding at this point. Perhaps partner is saying --bid 5N, that's where I think this contract belongs. Opener bids 5N and it should go all pass.