3♦ was a splinter (not everybody plays it this way), showing Club support and game-values as well as Diamond shortness, at which point North is ready to launch into Roman Key Card.  What are your methods here?  Some possibilities:

-         Use 4NT as Roman Key Card: This is not a good idea, using 4NT for this purpose in minor suit auctions does not work too well, all too often the response will get you too high.

-         Redwood: When a minor suit is agreed, and when the auction is game-forcing, then bidding four of the suit above trumps (in this case 4♦) is used by some as Roman Key Card (this is a whole lot better than using 4NT)

-         Minorwood: Another option is to use four of the agreed minor for Roman Key Card.  In some cases this works better than Redwood, allowing four of the suit above to be used for other purposes (such as a splinter or a cue-bid) … in other cases, Minorwood suffers from the disadvantage that trumps will not be agreed in time for 4♣ to be usable as Roman Key Card.

-         Bothwood: Yes, that’s the ticket, providing the best of both worlds … use Minorwood when it is available … and when it is not revert to Redwood.

Using that logic, Minorwood is available in the above auction.

South has a four-loser hand, which some might have considered worth a jump shift rebid earlier.  We have our doubts about that, we’d expect a 3♣ jump rebid to show more in the way of HCP.  Anyway, if South does rebid 3♣, surely North will charge into slam.  So, let’s see if N-S can get there with a more sedate 2♣ rebid in the auction above.  We’ll assume that N-S play North’s Fourth Suit Forcing bid of 2♠ as game-forcing, so that allows South to rebid 3♣, bidding out her shape without yet showing her extra strength.  The question now is: what should South do when North shows Diamond support?

South could futz around by cue-bidding 3♠ or 4♣ but that won’t achieve much, will it?  Surely South is good enough to bid Roman Key Card here.  You might not like this idea, considering that there are two Heart losers in the South hand, but the bidding strongly suggests that North has a Heart control.  Bear in mind, she hasn’t bid No Trump yet, so cannot have that much in Spades.  And if that is so, then where are her values if not in Hearts?

So, Roman Key Card it is!  4NT is a rather clunky way of Key-Carding when the agreed suit is a minor, which is why many play Minorwood, which has the benefit of keeping things low, and which also allows the partnership to bale out in 4NT if the Key Card response is deficient.  If you are playing Minorwood here, then does 4♦ qualify?  Yes, indeed, because:

-         Diamonds have been agreed

-         The auction is already game-forcing.

So, South bids 4♦, North responds 4NT (two key cards without the Queen of trumps), and South bids 6♦.

West’s sequence shows 22-23 HCP which puts East’s shapely 8-count in the slam zone.  How does East investigate for a minor suit slam in this situation?  One method is to play 3♠ as a relay to 3NT, after which Responder will describe the nature of his slam try as follows:

-         4♣: One-suited slam try in Clubs

-         4♦: One-suited slam try in Diamonds (some players switch the meanings of 4♣ and 4♦ in order to get the strong hand as Declarer)

-         4♥: Heart shortness with both minors

-         4♠: Spade shortness with both minors

-         4NT: Both minors, no major shortness

That’s the easy part!  After Responder has described the nature of his slam try, what is Opener supposed to do?  4NT is generally used as a natural bid, discouraging slam and guaranteeing a good holding in the majors, and other bids can be a response to Roman Key Card.  One small problem is that, after 2♣ 2♦, 2NT 3♠, 3NT 4♥, there is not yet an agreed suit … Opener knows but Responder doesn’t.  So, one solution is to assume that there are six Key Cards (four Aces and two minor suit Kings):

-         Step 1: 3 or 6 Key Cards (zero is impossible)

-         Step 2: 1 or 4 Key Cards

-         Step 3: 2 or 5 Key Cards, no minor Queens

-         Step 4: 2 or 5 Key Cards, lower ranking Queen (Clubs)

-         Step 5: 2 or 5 Key Cards, higher-ranking Queen (Diamonds)

-         Step 6: 2 or 5 Key Cards, both Queens

But, remember that 4NT is not included in these steps, that’s the bid which says “I don’t like slam”.  With these somewhat obscure agreements in place the complete auction would be:

            West    East

            2♣       2♦

            2NT     3♠

            3NT     4♥

            5♦!       6♣ (West would convert to 6♦ if that was his preferred suit)

            Pass

Yes, that 5♦ was the third step (not counting 4NT).  Needless to say, 6♣ is cold, and will make all 13 tricks if the defense does not cash the ♥A at Trick 1.

                                     1st April, 2009                     None Vul

First a review of the auction to date:

-         1♦: Most players open 1♦ when 4-4 in the minors, though it’s really not that important either way.

-         2♦: An Inverted Raise, denying a 4-card major, and showing at least game-invitational values.

-         2♥: This bid could mean any number of things!  It shows something in Hearts, and probably something extra, as with a minimum hand South might rebid 2NT or 3♦.  Game-forcing?  Maybe, maybe not, that depends on your methods!

-         2♠: Shows something in Spades.

Now what?  A common treatment on the tournament circuit is for 4♦ here to be Minorwood, which, in other words, is a cheap way of invoking Roman Key Card in certain minor suit auctions.  The trouble with using 4NT for Roman Key Card in minor suit auctions is that the auction all too often runs out of space.  After our Minorwood 4♦, Partner bids 4♥, which, using 1430 responses shows 1 or 4.  Now, we’d bid 4♠.  Yes, it’s the Queen Ask, and that gets N-S to the fine 6♦ contract.

Do you agree with the earlier 2♦ response?  It looks right to us, this hand is plenty strong enough for the pattern of the hand to be bid out.  That means bidding the Diamonds first, even though there is a 5-card major waiting in the wings.  The 2♦ response brings immediate dividends when the suit is raised by Partner.  What next?

If ever a hand was right for a Roman Key Card inquiry, this is the one, it’s rock-solid, except for the small matter of a few missing Key Cards.  Let’s suppose that your Roman Key Card bid is 4NT.  If you bid 4NT and Partner bids 5♥ (showing two Key Cards without the ♦Q) you will find yourself silently saying “Oops!” (or maybe something worse) when you realize that your auction has gone overboard and that a minus score is in your future.

There’s a solution!  Try playing Minorwood or Redwood.

-         Minorwood: With this method, 4 of the agreed minor is used as Roman Key Card.  The auction has to be already game forcing.  So, in the above auction, West bids 4♦ over 3♦, and now if East were to show only two cards E-W can escape in 5♦.

-         Redwood: In this case, the asking bid is 4 of the suit above the agreed minor.  However, that wouldn’t work on this hand as East has bid Hearts naturally.  So, West would have to bid 4♠ as Roman Key Card.

It’s hard to believe that North would want to introduce a new suit at the 4-level as a possible suit to play in.  So, no doubt, 4♣ is a cue-bid in support of Diamonds.  What next?  That being the case, we’d say that East has a pretty good hand, there are good controls and a fit in Partner’s suit.  This hand would be a good one for Minorwood, assuming that your partnership has the agreement that 4♦ here would indeed be Roman Key Card.

But a word of warning about Minorwood.  It has been known to lead to catastrophic misunderstandings!  You could follow this link and find a useful set of rules to avoid such disasters, but in the meantime let’s just say that for the Minorwoodies 4 of the agreed minor is Roman Key Card if the auction is game-forcing.  Does this auction qualify?  We think so.  Even though West has not actually bid Diamonds, he has agreed them inferentially.

Suppose that you do indeed bid 4♦ as Minorwood, and that Partner gives the most unwelcome response of 4♠ (no Key Cards, assuming 1430 responses).  For example, he might have: ♠ K, ♥ KJ72, ♦ T542, ♣ KQJT.  You are missing two Key Cards and clearly 3NT would provide a better matchpoint score than 5♦.  Well, it’s too late to play 3NT but at least you can now bid 4NT which would be natural.  Of course, if you had been obliged to use 4NT as your Roman Key Card bid, then you’d wind up in 5♦ for a poor matchpoint score.

Partner’s 3♥ bid showed something in Hearts, presumably he is reluctant to bid 3NT, either because of a Spade weakness or because he has extras and entertains hopes for a slam in Clubs.  Anyway, whichever it is, this East hand is worth some kind of slam move.  Here are some possibilities:

-         East could just up and bid 6♣ directly, there’s something to be said for the direct approach.  But perhaps not here, West is still unlimited, and bidding 6♣ will put an end to any grand slam possibilities.

-         Let us suppose that you have a Minorwood (4♣) or Redwood (4♦) option available, allowing Roman Key Card to invoked more cheaply.  That would commit the side to slam, as East won’t be staying out of 6 just because one Key Card is missing.

-         As before, suppose that Minorwood or Redwood are available.  If that is the case then what does 4NT mean here?  We’d suggest that it be a natural slam try, inviting Partner’s opinion.  After 4NT West has the option of passing, bidding 5♣, or going to slam.