22 June 2012

RKCB for the lose!

On a cold wintery evening while shuffling and dealing for bidding practice (with all the deuces removed) I was handed this:

5
6
A K Q J T 9
A K Q J T

That's a two loser, eleven playing trick hand. Partner opens 1.

There are only three likely end points for this auction, 5, 6 or 7NT depending entirely on whether partner has zero, one or two bullets. How to find out is a different story you see 4NT, is Roman Key Card Sodding Blackwood.

Does anyone have any clever tricks to solve this particular problem?

I'm far from happy with the auction we ended up with which involved me poncing around trying to set diamonds and facing an uncooperative partner gambling that two keycards in hearts might be enough.

5
6
A K Q J T 9
A K Q J T
A J 9 7 2
A J T 6 4 3
4
-


At least dummy has a diamond! Can you imagine hopefully leading towards the 5 at trick two, praying for the 3 and 4 to complete the trick avoiding five light?

5 comments:

  1. You could play that 1M-4N directly is straight Blackwood rather than RKC, and that if you want to use RKC in the major, you make a forcing raise of the major first.

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    Replies
    1. Plausible, direct keycard is rare and bidding something else first isn't too hard to remember.

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  2. What's the problem, isn't 4C always Gerber? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No. Some, me included, play it as a small singleton club...

      Delete
    2. Do you think we could get that on a T-shirt?

      Delete