A GOOD REASON, EVEN BEFORE RKCB

One of the most underrated bridge books was "On Bidding" by Alan Truscott and You Can Guess Who!

It was published in 1990 by Fireside, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster, and bizarrely not reprinted after the initial run sold out quickly. But to be honest, that was a lightly edited version of "Morehead on Bidding" by Albert Morehead, which came out in 1964. The groundbreaking discourse about suit fits went effectively untouched. Today's deal is taken from this chapter.

What do you think of the given auction, using regular Blackwood? Would it have helped if NorthSouth had been using Roman Key Card Blackwood, when North's five-heart reply would have shown two key cards (two aces or, as here, one ace and the spade king) and denied the spade queen?

The deal was played in a seven-table all-expert game. Four pairs reached five spades, and three got to six spades! Each declarer lost two spades and one heart. However, they couldn't really grumble about the bad spade split when they were cold for six clubs in the 5-3 fit. In six clubs after, say, two rounds of hearts, South must just be careful to ruff a diamond on the board before drawing trumps.

In the given auction, South contravened one of the "rules" of Blackwood in that he did not bid a slam despite missing only one ace. Morehead argues that South should have feared a weak trump holding in spades and should have bid six clubs over five diamonds to offer an alternative contract. This would be clear-cut using RKCB if -- a big if -- partner would read it as such, not as a grand-slam try for spades.