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LOL! Argine just asked for keycards, found it was missing one, and thus bid the grand slam. That's a new one. [hv=handviewer.html?nn=Argine&d=e&n=sq8632haqjt4dk5c4&a=p1D(4+!D; HCP 11-23; 4-card !d opener)P1S(4+!S; HCP 4+; natural - Forcing)P4H(4+!D; 4-5!S; HCP 16-20; Splinter, shortness in this suit and big fit in last suit bid - Game forcing)P4N(4+!S; HCP 12+; RKCB in !S %5B!S King is a keycard%5D - Forcing)P5D(4+!D; 4-5!S; HCP 16-20; 0 or 3 key card%5Bs%5D - Forcing)P7S(4+!S; HCP 12+; to play)PPP&v=n]480|200[/hv]

2NT is undefined for GIB, since 15-18 with stoppers would have overcalled 1NT, and stronger would have doubled first. The catch-all rule for undefined 2NT bids is that they show exactly (24 - min partner has shown) HCP, so that partner can accept with more than a minimum. Partner has shown 0 HCP to date, only 6-9 total points. So 2NT is considered to show exactly 24 HCP in your own hand. Since 1♦ already limits you to 17 HCP for the 1 level overcall, the definition merges the contradiction of <= 17 with = 24 to result in = 17, even though it doesn't really mean it. North can't bid 3NT because 17 + 7 < 25. Every other bid is messed up because we're already way into undefined territory; for example, 3♦ is set to show rebiddable diamonds with exactly 6 total points. So no, it's not trying to find a major fit, it just has no clue what anything means anymore. If you see a 2NT bid show an exact number of HCP, don't bid it.

2NT is 19-20 for us and 3♣ is natural, but I would take 4♣ as a cue bid in support of spades. What would be the meaning of: 1♦-1♠ 2NT-4♣ It would be natural for us, showing a lot of shape and the black suits - but I've never encountered this sequence and not sure what it says about the relative lengths of spades and clubs. Still tough to get to 6♣.

Fair comment! I may have misunderstood your auction. I read 3C as ‘do something intelligent’. I don’t know your methods but unless 3C denies hearts, I don’t understand why opener would bid 3S before 3H if he were 3=4 majors. So I wasn’t sure how credible it was for you to say that opener’s priority is to show 3 card support. Obviously, he’d do that here since he lacks 4 hearts…maybe you use some other bid to check for hearts. Also, while I don’t mind fast arrival, to me I’d use 4S as a very non-slammish hand as opposed to using 3S as ‘great’. Since responder is unlimited, jumping to game and wasting an entire level of bidding should not be the usual way of showing 3 spades, reserving the far more efficient 3S rebid only for ‘great’ support. If 3S merely denies a terrible, in context, hand, then I think south is really pushing the boat out to drive to a slam. Isn’t your auction to 4D consistent with Kxx AQx AKJx Qx? So what was 4H? You failed to mention, in your initial post, that you played what I assume is a form of Turbo…since I don’t know much about Turbo, I’m asking what 4H showed because you have opener driving beyond game. Did 4H ask or was it simply a cue and opener could have bid 4S? After 3 keycards, could opener have say Kxx AKx AQxx Kxx and, if not, why not? Isn’t that a great hand after 3C? 7 controls (plus 19 hcp) is an awful lot for a one level opener and yet the five level isn’t remotely safe but you’ve driven to a very, very bad slam. You need Ax in spades and to guess who has it plus you need clubs 2-2. Indeed, you’re in danger of being doubled if the black suits break badly. Finally, given that south has never shown club length, and north hasn’t been able to clarify his clubs, why is 6C an offer to play rather than a try for grand, seeking third round control of clubs? This last point may be an irrelevancy because maybe your auction had (more) undisclosed meanings. But isn’t the auction consistent with south holding KQxxxx x xx Axxx nearly cold for grand opposite AJx Axx AKxxx Kx but hopeless opposite AJx Axx AKxx Kxx? But generally, at least in methods with which I’m familiar, trotting out a 6 level bid in a previously undisclosed suit, after agreeing on another suit, isn’t suggesting a strain but is, rather, asking for help in the suit for a try for grand in the agreed-upon trump suit. So while you may think I’m being unfair, firstly you didn’t explain your auction and secondly the now-given explanation still makes your reaching slam, imo, a very poor gamble, and thirdly you seemed to blithely assume that both players knew that 6C showed 6+ club length (if 5, there’s no reason for north not to bid 6S) despite south never showing any club length below his out of the blue 6C bid. Yet your post suggested that you felt that bidding to slam was a good decision….which, imo, can only be explained by seeing that partner had close to magic cards. Still, I ought to have avoided implying that you were one of the frequent offenders, never missing contracts that depend, basically, on magically guessing partner’s actual cards. I don’t think of you as one of those so ought not to have implied otherwise

North showed 18-19 and then chose 3♠ rather than fast arrival in a GF situation, clearly his spades support was 3 card but great. His 5♣ showed control but also affirmed odd keycards, which has to be 3, so at best both side suit aces plus ace of spades, at worst off one ace. His shape is very likely 3343 or 3244, he promised the K of clubs and might well have or not need Q: no way of finding out, but it looks a reasonable punt. As I said, it may be resulting, it might not happen. S might bid 3NT non-serious and N get cold feet, EW might wake up to having 9 hearts. You could have used the same courtesy with me.

I think I see. If double contains all the hands that would have bid 1♥, it's okay. I was hung up over "Subset" and still am. If it goes 1♣ - (2♠) - 1♥, there might be a problem with double, because some weak hands that would have bid 1♥ are not strong enough to double. Then you go back to double as a subset of the 1♥ hands. (Not the other way round)

Finesses win when you have underbid and missed a game. Finesses lose when you have bid aggressively to a tight game or overbid to a bad game. If you believe your finesses are always losing, look out for elimination and endplays or squeezes instead. Making on a simple finesse is boring, anyone can do that. The expert play is to go down on an attempted strip squeese instead.