| S P E C I F I C K I N G S |
| Asking for Specific Kings |
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Specific Kings After a partnership discovers that they have all of the 5 keycards plus the queen of trumps, they usually investigate for a grand slam. A recent agreement is to use the 5NT bid to ask, "Which specific kings do you have?" This agreement is normally used when the partnership is playing Roman Keycard Blackwood. It may be that the earliest published article on this topic was in the February, 1981, The Bridge World magazine. At that time, Jeff Rubens and others were discussing The Useful Space Principle and the topic of asking for specific kings rather than how many was explored. The responses to 5NT are very simple: Responder bids the lowest king he has, which denies a king in a lower suit. Be aware though, there is no way to show a king in a suit above the trump suit, which has caused a great deal of discussion in the online Bridge Forums. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on the problems at present. Roy Wilson |