Saturday, April 16, 2005 2:12 AM

Hand Evaluation - KCB ( Kings )

PITBULLS:

Know thy Kings and how to locate them . Serious 3NT with the majors combined with Italian style Q bidding , locates Kings quite fast as they have equal billing with Aces . A king can be bid as a control as long as under game. KCB has many built in ways to find specific Kings . Let’s review. With a major or minor fit , use the queen ask to find Kings as the specific Kings are built into the responses. If the queen ask is at the 5 level , a 5NT response shows the queen but no Kings. With minor suit KCB , the next suit is the queen ask so we show our lower ranking King when we have the queen of trump. No not forget , a major suit fit with KCB has more understandings than a minor suit fit with minorwood. Some KCB toys only apply to major suit fits.

With a major suit fit , a direct 5NT bid asks for specific Kings after KCB. After a 4NT RKB ask & response, 5NT asks for specific Kings up the line.   If responder has one King, he bids that suit.   If responder has two kings, he bids the lower ranking king first.   If responder has three Kings,  he bids 6NT forcing to a grand slam in either notrump or the agreed suit.   If the responder can count 13 tricks, he should NOT respond specific Kings, but simply bid the grand.   In fact, showing a King in response to the SKA denies the ability to count 13 tricks. Furthermore, if either player has splintered, a six level response to the SKA in the splinter suit, shows the ♠K.    It is wasteful for the responder to show the King of the splinter suit when hearts is the agreed suit, so why not use it for something useful? 

With the majors implied , a suit bid that is not the queen ask is a specific suit ask. This is only defined for the major suit fits not agreed minors. You can build in a suit ask with the minors when the context of the auction leads to “what else could it be ?”. 5NT is always the specific King ask after a major suit fit.  If you go the specific King ask route after partner shows you one , a new suit is asking you to bid a grand if you have that King . It is not the specific suit ask . Specific suit ask is only after a major suit agreement coupled with you choosing not to use specific King ask or queen ask initially.

With minors as the agreed suit is there a way to ask for specific Kings or Specific Suit Ask ?. No , specific suit ask is not defined for the minors as the auction will end up at too high a level. Kantar does not mention specific King ask after a minor agreement either. Bidding 5NT as a specific King ask with a minor fit is downright silly as you go past your comfort level very fast. Some enterprising partnerships have built specific King asks into the system after a minor suit fit. If you bid a new suit just over the trump suit at the 5 level , it is specific King ask rather than a suit ask. 5♦ is the specific King ask with clubs agreed so 5♥ is the specific King ask with diamonds agreed. The normal way of finding Kings with the minor fit , is to use the queen ask.

Another way to locate a king is jump to 5 of your agreed major with the opponents in the auction. Partner passes with no control in their suit , bids 6 with a singleton & 5NT with their king.