This Week in Bridge
(580) Keycard Blackwood Details – More Queen Asks
©AiB Robert S. Todd
Level: 8 of 10 robert@advinbridge.com
General
When we move from playing Blackwood to Keycard Blackwood, we improve our slam bidding by including a discussion of the trump King and Queen. Playing Keycards (let’s say 1430), then partner’s answer to our 4NT ask sometimes tells us if they hold the trump Queen and other times does not. In the latter case we need to be able to ask partner if they hold the trump Queen, as we do not want to bid a slam missing a Keycard and the trump Queen. Let’s look at how we ask partner about the trump Queen in a variety of different auctions.
“Normal” Queen Ask
When we use 4NT to ask partner for their number of Keycards (playing 1430), these are their answers:
5♣ 1 or 4 Keycards
5♦ 0 or 3 Keycards
5♥ 2 Keycards without the Queen
5♠ 2 Keycards with the Queen
When partner answers 5♥ or 5♠, then we know about all the Keycards and the trump Queen, but if partner answers 5♣ or 5♦ then we do not know about the trump Queen. We need to ask partner about the Queen. We use the cheapest available bid to do this!
If partner does not have the Queen, they rebid our suit at the 5-level, allowing us to stop short of slam. If partner does have the trump Queen, they bid slam or start showing their Kings by bidding their cheapest King.
When ♠ is the trump suit, we always have space to do this.
Example 1 – Queen Ask
Opener Responder
1♠ 3♠
4NT 5♣
5♦ __?
This 5♦ bid asks Responder if they have the trump Queen. Here are their possible answers:
5♠ No ♠Q
5♥ ♠Q and ♥K
5NT ♠Q, no outside Kings
6♣ ♠Q and ♣K, no ♥K
6♦ ♠Q and ♦K, no ♥K and no ♣K
6♥ ♠Q and ♥K (I forgot that could bid 5♥)
6♠ Unusually - no Queen and no Kings, but extra trump – I hope this makes!
Example 2 – Queen Ask
Opener Responder
1♠ 3♠
4NT 5♦
5♥
This 5♥ bid asks Responder if they have the trump Queen. Responder uses similar rebids to above to then further describe their hand.
Problem Queen Ask
When ♥ is the trump suit and partner’s answer to our Keycard ask is 5♦, we do not have any space to ask them for the trump Queen and keep the auction below slam.
Example 3 – Problem Queen Ask
Opener Responder
1♥ 3♥
4NT 5♦
__?
Here we do not use 5♥ to ask for the trump Queen; 5♥ is to play.
But in an auction like this we may really need to know about the trump Queen. What do we do?
Most of the time we are left just to guess. If we think partner has the Queen, we bid 6♥; if we think not, we settle for 5♥.
If we’re willing however, we do have a way to ask! Here we can use 5♠ to ask partner if they have the trump Queen - the first available “unused” bid. There is a problem with this though, because we are already past 5♥, so we have committed to going to 6♥ even if partner does not have the trump Queen. This 5♠ bid to ask partner for the trump Queen is only used when we are interested in a Grand Slam – we have a good hand and have all the keycards.
Conclusion
When we have a strong sense that we want to bid a slam, we use Keycard to make sure that we do not bid a bad slam. If we are missing two Aces, then clearly bidding slam is usually a bad idea. If we are missing two Keycards (which could be an Ace and the King of trump), then we have a similar problem. But if we are missing one Keycard and the trump Queen, we also do not want to bid slam most of the time – that is 1.5 losers, and we still have to deal with all the other missing honors. So, when we use Keycard, being able to ask partner if they have the Queen is important. Sometimes we are forced to commit to slam in order to ask for the Queen, but if we are interested in a Grand Slam, this is still extremely useful. Make sure that you know how to “ask for the Queen” in as many situations as possible.