[Yzerman]

Inquiry and I played the other day and had a 4D diamond RKC auction in which I followed up with specific king query (at least what I thought was the standard for specific kings). Everything worked out and we arrived at the proper contract however Ben asked me to post this to see if any feedback available.

For those that play minorwood (4C=RKC clubs, 4D=RKC diamonds), how do you ask for specific kings?

I learned 4C/4D RKC such that the 5D/5H are the corresponding king ask, respectively. After an RKC query for club, 5D is specific king ask (where 5N = DK) and after an RKC query for diamond, 5H is specific king ask (where 5N=HK). Here are some examples;

4C=RKC clubs, response = 1430;
...4C-4N-5D-5N (5D=King ask, 5N=DK)
...4C-4N-5D-5S (5D=King ask, 5S=SK)
...4C-4N-5D-6C (5D=King ask, 6C=No kings)

4D=RKC diamonds, response = 1430;
...4D-4N-5H-5N (5H=King ask, 5N=HK)
...4D-5C-5H-5S (5H=King ask, 5S=SK)
...4D-5C-5H-6D (5H=King ask, 6D=No kings)

a) Does anyone else consider this the "standard"?

Are there any other ways to accomplish this?

c) Are there any other ideas?

[inquiry]

It is not surprising I was concerned about the auction, as it is the first time I have responded to 4-Diamonds as roman key card blackwood, and in fact, was a little concerned that maybe 4H on our actual auction would have been RKB (after two level, non-agreement). But in fact, I did treat 4D as RKB, and in doing so, I made the correct response that carried us beyond 4N. Yzerman made the 5H bid as a specific king ask.

I worked out that this was a) not the trump queen ask, since I had already shown that I held it ( ), and 2) realized that this might be a specific king ask (as intended) or a specific suit ask. Here was my problem. I held AQxx of the suit asked. If I am responding to a specific Suit Ask, I must show third round control with first step (5S). But I also held the club king (and no spade king). So if I am going to respond to this as a specific king ask, I must bid 5C. I finally decided to go with showing the king (note, 5C would Kx of hearts in response to SSA).

So the question being raised in this post is how to separate the Specific King Ask from the Specific Suit Ask? (If you don't understand what these are, check out chapter VI and VII on roman keycard blackwood at http://www.kantarbridge.com/rkb.htm ). After a major suit fit and 4NT, 5NT is the specific king ask, while a new suit that is not the Queen ask is Specific Suit Ask.

Here the room is not available for 5NT to be of much use as a specific King ask (not much room left, especially if Clubs is trumps, to show anything useful). So capturing a lower bid as specific king ask seems by far more useful.

a) Does anyone else consider this the "standard"?

Probably not. I don't remember this treatment in Kantar's page...but more than 20 chapters on blackwood, I could have missed it.

Are there any other ways to accomplish this?

I am fairly sure if the bidding is still BELOW 4N (your examples gave 4N as the intial response), then 4NT should be the specific king ask. This way, 5H could be specific suit ask, in case hearts is the key suit.

c) Are there any other ideas?

If 5H is specific king ask over D fit (and 5D over C fit), and 5S and 6C are specific suit ask (in your given auctions) ta da... would 5NT be specific suit ask in hearts or a general max/min grand slam try? If I was going to guess (without a hard and fast rule), I would play it SSA in the skipped suit, but realize that the steps will take you beyond 6 of the minor from time to time, so you have to be willing to play in NT if you get the "wrong" step response.

Ben

[mishovnbg]

After answer to RKCB and Q trump i play next cheapest suit as ask for side K for grand. Other bids (no sign off) ask for Q(bubleton) in asked suit, if no space - for most important side suit in bidding.
Misho