[DWM]

Scoring: IMP

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Bidding has gone

(1NT wk) - 2C [Landy] - (P) - 4H
(P) - 4S - (P) - 4NT
(P) - 1/4 KC - (P) - ???

Couple of questions here

Is the RCKB bid correct, or should I show my A♦?
Assuming you do use RCKB how do you continue after being told 1/4 KC?

At the table I threw away the idea that P has 1 KC as he bids on past 4H.
This left me with trying to work out what sort of hand P could have had and not doubled to start with.

How would you continue? From either the 4S bid or the 1/4 KC bid.

[inquiry]

Ok, 2♣ showed both majors, and you bid 4♥ based upon fit. Partner should know that you could have bid 2NT to find out more about his hand on the way to 4♥ so your hand is very good for this auction.

The key point was what was 4♠? It was a slam try where he didn't want to ask for aces. IF he wanted to know about your total keycards he could have bid 4NT. Odds are he is void in one or the other of the minors (of course, 5C/5D by him could also be used as EXCLUSION KEYCARD BLACKWOOD on this auction).

I would NOT have bid 4NT, but rather cue-bid the diamond ACE. Then I would have left the continuation up to partner.

On the other hand hand how likely is it yoru partner has 4 keycards? That give his SA HAK CA. If he has that, no matter what you bid you will be in slam. 5♦ now would ask for the heart queen, so there is little use in bidding that. If you bid 5♥ in theory a partner with 4 key cards would not pass, still he maybe off two quick diamonds (explaining his cue-bid as opposed to 4NT), and he might pass 5H even with four keycards.

I suspect I would bid 5NT (or 5♠ or 6♦) at this point to show possession of all the keycards and offer the possibility of the grand slam...but really, the correct bid seems to have been 5♦ over 4♠.
Still. Since you didn't bid 2NT, it is hard to imagine partner is making a slam try with only 1 keycard.

[Robert]

Hi everyone

When in doubt, cuebid(most of the time anyway) You do not know what to do after RKC, so do not use it.

Your 5D bid gives your partner quite a bit of information about your hand. Let partner 'in' on that information.

Regards,
Robert

[FrancesHinden]

I would have cued my ace of diamonds rather than asked for aces.
For one thing, to be making a slam try there's a good chance that partner has a minor suit void.

For another, Blackwood doesn't help us tell the difference between

AKQxxx
AKxx
x
xx

and

AKQxxx
AKxx
xx
x

I would however have an ongoing worry that partner didn't think 2C was for the majors.... do you play double as penalty? Is partner limited to a hand not strong enough for a penalty double?

[pclayton]

I would have cued the ♦A. Its the most relevant feature of your hand. Pard, with a very strong hand could have chosen to keycard, but didn't. There's a flaw across the table, and its probably ♦xx.

I'll bet 5♦ will be greeted enthusiatically by pard.

[kenberg]

I suppose that 4S is an ace. Best to bid 5D (I am repeating others here). There are several reasons. We don't care all that much if partner does not have the king of hearts since almost certainly opener will if partner doesn't. But we care very much if we are off the cashing AK of clubs. So 5D should get us to the right spot.

Now about judging whther partner has 1 or 4. It's very useful to have the following agreement: Asker always has at least one key card and is prepared to play in slam opposite three of the remaining four keycards. Thus, after an ambiguous repsonse of either 1/4 or 0/3, asker assumes the lower number and signs off, after which responder carries on if he holds the higher. So here you bid 5H. If pard holds 4 he bids on. You can have the further agreement that he carries on by answering as if you had asked for the queen. So here over 5H he would bid, if he has 4 keys, whatever the bid would be to deny the Q.

Kantar has written several editions of his book on rkc. In an early one, he recommends this treatment. In a later one he takes it back and further varies the 1430 or 0314 treatment depending on whether asker is the stronger or the weaker. Perhaps this works with expert partnerships, but I think that using 1430 always, and always playing that asker promises at least one, is the way to go for the rest of us.

[DWM]

Double would generally show a penalty.

I do try and not use blackwood unless I have to as I have read that for every 10 times it is used about 9 times it is used in error. Looks like I should have thought a bit more before bidding the 4NT this time.