A MODIFIED MONTREAL RELAY


Major Suit Keycard and Other Ace Asking Bids


MSK

Major Suit Keycard - It's Not Roman Keycard     Is there anything better than Standard Blackwood or Roman Keycard?   Both of those conventions attempt to work with all four suits, but the truth is that neither of them work well with minors and RKC has a flaw when the trump suit is hearts.  It's very good with spades, however!

Have you ever committed to a slam in hearts missing two keycards?  It can happen when you have to bid 5 to show two keycards and the queen of trump as required in Roman Keycard.  Another problem with that particular response is that you can never stop at 5NT when your suit is hearts.

Experienced partnerships know that RKC is awkward when used to explore a minor suit slam, especially when the club suit is to be trump.  Any response to 4NT other than 5 commits the partners to the six level even when there may not be enough keycards.  Roman Keycard usually works well with majors but players prefer not to use it with minors.   Unfortunately both standard Blackwood and Roman Keycard Blackwood try to accomodate all four suits with the same set of responses.  I'm suggesting that RKC be modified to work equally well with both hearts and spades and use Gerber with modified responses when the trump suit is a minor.

Roman Keycard was an immense improvement over the old standard conceived by Easley Blackwood, but it has problems.  So many that Eddie Kantar wrote four books on the perils and pitfalls of the convention with a great many work-arounds to avoid them.  Other expert-level players have devised such schemes as Redwood, Minorwood, Kickback and more because of the faults in RKC and yet... two players will sit down to play together for the first time and you might hear one of them say, "RKC?" and the other will reply, "Yeah, 0314."   With that they move on to another area of the card!  So much for your four books, Eddie.  Anyway, read about MSK and you decide if it's better.

It's certainly more difficult to play different systems depending on whether or not you are asking for keycards in a major or a minor, but there is a big advantage if you decide to do so.  The method described here will work with minors but like all of the ace-asking conventions it is better with majors.

I owe a great deal to my partners who have helped me perfect this agreement - Thank you, Elizabeth Wilson, John Barrow, Peter Szecsi, Jan Wickersham and Martin Weiss.  I also want to acknowledge Bob Locke, a player in the Sacramento area, who suggested an excellent modification.

Baby Blackwood
Before we discuss MSK let's talk about an old convention that's not much used, but can be very helpful - After your side agrees on a major suit as trump you can use a bid of 3NT to ask for aces.  You can use any flavor of Blackwood you like, too.  If you prefer the old fashioned style, or your partner won't give up Roman Keycard, you might still consider this agreement.  It's important that both partners know they have agreed on either hearts or spades as the trump suit when they use this convention!  My partners and I have an implicit understanding that an immediate response of 3NT to a major suit opening is an agreement on that suit as trump and is MSK.  It sure beats using 4NT and having to stop at the 5-level when you know you have enough for game but are unsure of the slam level.




Basic Agreement
First, as in Roman Keycard Blackwood, let's agree that the king of trump is an important keycard as good as a fifth ace and second, that 4NT is an asking bid.


4NT    How Many Keycards do You Have?
These are the responses:

          4NT    Keycard Ask      

          5    Zero or one keycard      
          5    Two keycards without the queen of trump      
          5    Two keycards with the queen of trump      
          5    Three keycards without the queen of trump      
          5NT   Three keycards with the queen of trump      

Does 5 Show Zero or One Keycard?
The first step is a bit ambiguous because the answer is either zero or one keycard. After a bit of thought you will realize that sometimes it's important to know if partner has the missing keycard, or perhaps an important void, when the response to 4NT is 5    (Although zero keycards would be a rare hand in a slam auction it does happen.
    You can find out by bidding 5
    Obviously, since this is a forcing bid and must have some sort of meaning we can agree that it asks a question to determine if you belong in slam.  Partner, do you have none or one keycard?  Responding with the agreed on major at the 5-level indicates no keycard.

    When Responder has the missing keycard he might also hold the queen of trumps.  If he does not have the queen he should jump directly to the slam as requested.  But Responder could also bid the suit of the ace he holds with the understanding that it shows the queen of trump as well.  Responder bids 5NT holding a trump keycard and the queen.
And here's another benefit...  If the Prompter next bids either a new suit or 5NT after hearing that Responder does not have a keycard it is not asking for kings!  The Prompter wants to stop in 5NT.  (The old fashioned standard Blackwood also had a way to sign off at 5NT but RKC has only a limited way of doing this.)

Showing a Void at the 6-level
Unlike RKC, which shows an unspecified void, MSK will pin-point the void suit.
    Minor Suit Void    A jump response in a minor shows a void in that suit.


          4NT   Keycard Ask      
           6    Three keycards and a void in clubs      
           6    Three keycards and a void in diamonds              


    Major Suit Void    A jump response in the trump suit shows a void in the other major.


          4NT   Keycard Ask      
           6    Three keycards and a void in the other major     
           6    Three keycards and a void in the other major      



5NT - Telling or Asking?
It's both.  But you might be wondering - If the response is 5NT, showing four keycards, how does the rest of the bidding proceed since the Prompter who started the asking sequence can no longer use 5NT to inquire about kings?  Not a problem - The 5NT answer also becomes the question - It's simply that the Prompter has switched sides and the player who initiated the sequence now tells how many kings he has.

5NT Asking for Kings
First, a question...  How many kings are there?  Remember, the king of trump is one of the keycards regarded as an ace and is included in the response to 4NT, so that leaves just three kings.  These are the responses to the King Asking Bid.


          5NT    King Ask      
          6    Zero or one king      
          6    Two kings      
          6    Three kings      


Is it One or None?
Note that when the response is 6 showing zero or one, the partnership can get clarification with a second asking bid which is the next step --       Bid 6 to say,
    Partner, you said you have either one or no king... Bid the grand slam if you have one king, but just stop at six of our major if you have none.


Use Gerber With MSK Responses Over Preemptive Bids and Minors

Most players understand that Gerber is best used over notrump bids, but it can also be useful when your partner has opened with a preemptive bid.  By using 4 as an ace asking bid you can stop at a lower level than you can with any form of 4NT Blackwood.

Gerber with MSK responses will work well when the suit is spades as there are enough steps to avoid a problem, but there simply are not enough steps when the trump suit is hearts.  The solution is to ignore the queen when the trump suit is hearts.  Use the response of 4 to tell your partner you have either zero or one keycard and bid 4 with two keycards with or without the queen.  The next step above hearts shows three keycards.

If your preemptive suit is spades, you have the room to show two keycards and still be able to show or deny the queen of trump.

Minor Suits - Use Modified Gerber When You Can
Okay, but what about minor suits?  Can this be modified to work with clubs and diamonds?  I really recommend that you work out a way to agree on Gerber whether you adopt MSK responses or not because asking starting with 4NT do not work well with minors.  Minor suit slams are always going to be difficult.  And remember, you can't show three keycards with a specific void by jumping to the six level because you would then be propelled into a grand slam, but you could jump to six of your minor promising three keycards and also a void in a higher suit.  MSK isn't meant for minors, but then, neither Standard Blackwood nor Roman Keycard Blackwood work very well with those suits either.  We've just run out of bidding room!  But if you find yourself in a bidding situation where you must use 4NT to ask about keycards then use the same responses as you would for majors. So call it mSK, minor Suit Keycard, with a lower case letter "m" if you like.

And finally... Let's agree that in the interest of good bridge the partner initiating the sequence should have at least one keycard.  MSK is not perfect.  Nothing ever is, but MSK is certainly an improvement.

    Here's a hand that was played on BridgeBase Online and was an average, but MSK would have gotten a top.  (This one flaw of having to bid 5 with two keycards and the queen of trump is why MSK is so much better.)