Six Ace Roman Keycard Blackwood

The origin of this conventional method is unknown. This conventional method, otherwise known by its abbreviated designation 6A-RKCB or Six Ace Blackwood, (more technically Six Ace Roman Keycard Blackwood), is considered to be a natural extension of the concept known as Roman Key Card Blackwood, whereby the Key Card bidder asks for five known Key Cards.

However, the 6A-RKCB conventional method asks for eight known Key Cards, the four Aces, the two Kings, and the two Queens. This one all-separating and all-important distinction between these two concepts, Asking Bids and Responding Bids, is important in distinguishing the two concepts since the conventional method of Roman Key Card Blackwood only applies to one found suit fit, whereas the conventional method of 6A-RKCB applies only when the partnership discovers in the auction that there are two found suit fits.

The following schematic shows the corresponding Asking Bids and the corresponding Responding Bids:

Asking Bid Responses Meaning

• 4 NT 5 Shows 1 or 4 Key Cards.
• 5 Shows 0 or 3 Key Cards.
• 5 Shows 2 Key Cards. Denies possession of any Queens.
• 5 Shows 2 Key Cards. Promises 1 of 2 Queen(s).
• 5 NT Shows 2 Key Cards. Promises both Queens.
• 6 any Shows 3 Key Cards with a void (unless the response is in the trump suit).

Queen Ask

After a 5 first response, the 4 No Trump asker can bid 5 to ask for the Queen of trumps. This is generally the case if the discovery is made that all Key Cards are in possession of the two holdings. The responses of:

• 5 hearts: Denies both Queens.
• 5 spades: Shows one Queen.
• 5 NT: Shows both Queens.
• 6 (x): A 6 level bid shows both Queens and the King of the bid suit.

Following this auction, North now realizes that South has jumped reversed and holds, according to partnership agreement, at least a 5-card Club suit and a 4-card Spade suit and a holding containing 18-19/20 points. North also realizes that the partnership has also 8-card fits in two suits: Clubs and Spades

North then employs, per partnership agreement, the 6-Ace Roman Key Card Blackwood conventional method by bidding 4 No Trump. The trump suit has been established by inference and the jump to 4 No Trump by North indicates that the last bid suit is now the trump suit.

South bids 5 to show three Key Cards: two Aces and the King of trump. Since these are the only missing Key Cards in the holding of North, North is now presently in a situation where the decision has to be made whether to bid a small slam or a grand slam, and this all depends upon the answer to the question about the two missing Queens.

Therefore, North asks for the number of Queens held by South by bidding one step higher: 5. Since South has two Queens, the Queen of trump and the Queen in the second-suit fit, South rebids 6 to show both Queens and the King of Diamonds. North, after knowing that all the Key Cards plus all the Queens of the two-suited fits are held by the partnership, can either bid the grand slam in Spades or 7 No Trump, which results in a better positive score. In the above example a final contract of 7 No Trump would be better in the possible case that the Spade split would be 5-0.

Alternative Version

Another option for the partnership agreement is as follows:

5 hearts: Denies both Queens.
5 spades: Shows the Queen of the lower-ranking suit.
5 NT: Shows the Queens higher-ranking suit.
6 clubs: Promises two Queens.

Following a 5 response, if Hearts is one of the agreed suits, the 5 bid is to play. The bid of 5 may not be employed as the asking relay. Therefore, the asking bid for Queens is the cheapest non-agreed suit. In this case, following a 5 response showing zero of three Key Cards, the asker uses the following guidelines.

Asking Bids:

5 hearts: becomes the Asking Bid if Hearts is not one of the agreed suits.
5 spades: becomes the Asking Bid if Spades is not one of the agreed suits.
6 clubs: becomes the Asking Bid if both Major suits are agreed.

The Responses:

1st Step: shows neither Queen
2nd Step: shows the lower-ranking Queen
3rd Step: shows the higher-ranking Queen
4th Step: shows both Queens