Rosenkranz Spiral Scan after RKC asking bid



The spiral scan by George Rosenkranz. Used for uncovering key side-suit kingsand queens. Using the spiral scan, you don't have to ask for cards you've already
got. You can immediately zero in on the card you hope partner holds.
Suppose the auction has begun like this:
West East
1S 2NT (1)
4NT (2) 5C (3)
(1) Forcing spade raise.
(2) Roman Key Card Blackwood
(3) Zero or three key cards.
In standard RCKB, if opener continues with 5D, it asks partner if he has the trump queen. What happens, however, if opener already has that card? Usually,
assuming the RCKB bidder is interested in a grand slam, he bids 5NT.
That is a waste of space.
We use all the intermediate bids, each one asking for a specific card -
with two provisos: if a nine-card or better major-suit is known, 3NT is
to play. If the responder to 4NT might have zero or one key card, five
of the notrump suit is to play - it is not a step.
If the responder has three or four key cards, he treats the bid as
checking for the trump queen.
Here is the order of priority:
1. The queen of trump.
2. A side-suit king in a bid suit, starting with the longest suit in the
responder's hand. If the responder has not to bid another suit, he shows
the first king shown in another suit by the 4NT bidder.
If neither partner has bid a side suit, responder to 4NT shows a king in
the lowest-ranking non-trump suit.

3. Other kings, scanning the suits in ascending order (you may use descending order if you wish).
4. A side-suit queen in a bid suit, starting with the longest side-suit in the responder's hand.
5. Other side-suit queens in ascending order.
6. The jack of trumps.
7. Side-suit jacks in the same order - if it ever gets to that.

Let's go back to the example auction:
West East
1S 2NT
4NT 5C
5D asks for the S-Q.
5H asks for the C-K.
5S asks for the D-K (responder cannot have zero key cards).
5NT asks for the H-K.
6C asks for the C-Q.
6D asks for the D-Q.
6H asks for the H-Q.
How does responder answer? He counts steps. If he bids the next step
up, he denies holding the card asked about. If he bids the second step,
he shows the card asked about but denies higher cards.
West East
1S 2NT
4NT 5C
5H (1)
(1) Do you have the C-K?
East's responses:
5S : no C-K.
5NT : the C-K, but not the D-K.
6C : the C-K and the D-K but not the H-K.
6D : the C-K, the D-K and the H-K but no C-Q - and so on.
In this way, we concentrate on the most valuable cards.
On last point: the spiral scan continues until we reach six of the
agreed suit. Here is an example:
West East
S- AJ653 S- KQ74
H- KQ5 H- A6
D- 2 D- A105
C- KQ74 C- AJ62

West East
1S 2NT (1)
3D (2) 4NT (3)
5D (4) 5NT (5)
7C (6) 7NT
(1) Forcing spade raise.
(2) Singleton diamond.
(3) Roman Key Card Blackwood.
(4) One key card.
(5) The second step (5S would be to play), asking about the C-K.
(6) The sixth step, showing the C-K, the H-K, the C-Q, the H-Q and the
S-J - and denying the C-J.

Source: http://home.sol.no/~torskogl/enspiralscan.txt