18th November 2015



From a recent Gold Cup round 2 match


 S  4
 H  AJ65
 D  AK8632
 C  A3

Non-vul vs Vul. IMPs Dealer West

South
West
North
East

1H Pass
2NT (1)
Pass
3D (2) Pass
4NT (3)
Pass
5S (4)
Pass
?

(1) A raise to game or better in hearts
(2) Non minimum no shortage
(3) Roman Key Card Blackwood
(4) Two key cards and the queen of hearts

What do you bid now ?

Solution

Seven hearts should be solid unless partner has three small diamonds.  Simplest is to bid seven hearts and hope, most of the time partner will not have three small diamonds and even if he does there is the chance of a two-two split.  However, there is a little known extension to RKCB.  After Roman Key Card Blackwood has identified all of the controls a bid of six of a non-trump suit asks partner to bid the grand with third round control in that suit, so six diamonds is the recommended call.

Partner's hand was AKQ3, KQ82, QJ7, Q6 so both the agricultural and the sophisticated approaches would have worked.