ROMAN
BLACKWOOD

After Mr. Easley Blackwood devised his concept of ascertaining the number of Aces and Kings held by the partnership through the unique bid of 4 No Trump, his opinion was that he devised the concept not to reach slam, but to avoid bidding a slam contract, which had no possibility of being fulfilled.

Bridge players from around the world adopted his concept and have been making variations to it. One modification to the Blackwood convention is the Roman Blackwood.

The concept behind Roman Blackwood is the fact that the responder, if he has two Aces, has a choice of responses which he can make in order to describe his hand further. A further description of the holding may be necessary in the situation when the responder has not had the chance to describe all of his values to his partner. The fact must be repeated that the responder will be showing extra values or not showing extra values in his responses to a 4 No Trump bid by his partner.

North	East	South	West
1	pass	1	pass
1	pass	4	pass
4 NT

After the responder has shown that he has excellent support for Spades, game-going values, and a singleton Heart with his 4 Heart rebid, North decides to explore for slam possibilities. The responder can show additional values and the number of Aces as shown below. North already has the information that his partner, South, has a singleton Heart.

5 :		shows 0 to 3 Aces
5 :		shows 1 or 4 Aces
5 :		shows 2 Aces and no additional values
5 :		shows 2 Aces and additional values

If the response is 5 Clubs, the 4 No Trump bidder reevaluates his holding and makes the corresponding bid.

If the response is 5 Diamonds, the 4 No Trump bidder reevaluates his holding and makes the corresponding bid.

If the response is 5 Hearts, showing no extra values, the 4 No Trump bidder reevaluates his holding and makes the corresponding bid.

If the response is 5 Spades, showing extra values which could be the Queen of trump or one or more side Kings, the 4 No Trump bidder reevaluates his holding and makes the corresponding bid.

The essential element of Roman Blackwood is either a 5 Heart response or a 5 Spade response, showing two Aces with or without additional values.

As a side note, it should be mentioned that in the original version of Roman Blackwood, the two responses of 5 Hearts or 5 Spades had distinctive, different meanings. As bridge players around the world are aware, there are four pairs of matching Aces.

Ace of Clubs and the Ace of Diamonds

Ace of Clubs and the Ace of Spades

Ace of Diamonds and the Ace of Hearts

Ace of Hearts and the Ace of Spades

In the original version of Roman Blackwood, a response of 5 Spades signified two Aces which did not match, either in rank or in color, and there are two such matching Aces: the Ace of Clubs and the Ace of Hearts, and the Ace of Diamonds and the Ace of Spades.

In the original version of Roman Blackwood, a response of 5 Hearts signified two Aces which did match, in rank and in color, and there are two such matching Aces: the Ace of Clubs and the Ace of Spades, and the Ace of Diamonds and the Ace of Hearts.

Using the original version of Roman Blackwood, the 4 No Trump bidder could place the Aces of his partner exactly, and realize if there was an Ace missing or not. However, certain ambiguities of the original version of Roman Blackwood lead to many misunderstandings, and the responses were modified to provide a more informational response, much to the relief of many bridge players.

If you wish to incorporate the Roman Blackwood into your Partnership Agreement, then it is vital that the assignment of the meanings of the bids by the responder by completely understood by the partnership.

If you wish to include this feature, or any other feature, of the game of bridge in your partnership agreement, then please make certain that the concept is understood by both partners. Be aware whether or not the feature is alertable or not and whether an announcement should or must be made. Check with the governing body and/or the bridge district and/or the bridge unit prior to the game to establish the guidelines applied. Please include the particular feature on your convention card in order that your opponents are also aware of this feature during the bidding process, since this information must be made known to them according to the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. We do not always include the procedure regarding Alerts and/or Announcements, since these regulations are changed and revised during time by the governing body. It is our intention only to present the information as concisely and as accurately as possible.