PhantomSac

You are right that 5S is the correct bid, however you are missing the point that if you try for a grand in a suit your partner has denied a control in, you automatically are known to have the ace of that suit. So 5S guarantees the CA also, not just a club control. The reason should be obvious, you cannot be off a first round control of a suit and make a grand so you shouldn't try for a grand when you are known to be off a first round control of a suit. Your suggested auction of bidding 5N over 5S means you need something more, probably a 5th heart or the HQ. That seems like how one would bid with AQJxx AKxxx A xx over 5S. In a perfect world you could stop in 6 opposite 3424 and get there opposite 3433, I'm sure theres enough room and we have 5N, 6C, and 6D all available, but in real life I would just bid 7H over 5S, and if I needed a 5th trump or the HQ that's what I'd bid 5N with (which is generally what 5N in these auctions is used for). @Kurt: I am all about practical bridge but having bid 4H, you cannot be attempting to sign off in 5S. If you wanted to play spades then don't bid 4H. It is still possible that opener wants to play spades and bid 3H, but it is possible he wants to play hearts also so your signoff has to be 5H (and if partner wants to play spades he can go back to 5S over that). So yeah, 5S is definitely a cuebid even with no agreements, it is just bridge logic.

Why would declarer duck the diamond if that was his hand? He can win and duck a spade unless he has only 2 hearts somehow.

With AJ86 of diamonds they have a very real shot of making by winning the diamond and trying to set up diamond tricks, eg if the 7 was from 97x, T7x, T7, etc. They basically always make unless we have KQT9(x) of diamonds.

Trying to drop the stiff CK before taking the H hook seems like a donation. You are just trying to go down 2 for basically no gain (stiff K of clubs despite being very unlikely a priori, requires LHO to have presumably some D length (DK lead), plus 5 clubs, and we are missing 9 hearts, so we can assume some hearts). I would guess that catering to the stiff CK is very -EV, even including the chance that they don't bid slam, and the chance that they take a different hook from us.

Yeah if you hadn't shown heart shortness I'd lead the HJ since they might need to cover if our hand was different (5224 with the CK?). At least there is some chance. Anyways I am not sure if this is legit but LHO with H+D length would be more likely to bid with the HK than the CK (eg, x Kxxxx KQJxx xx might michaels or bid 2H, but x xxxxx KQJxx Kx wouldn't?), so I'd probably take the club hook after trying to ruff out Kx of hearts. But yeah it's basically 50-50.

Axxxx of spades is the complete nuts holding for this auction, and opener will know it (especially with a primed out 20 count?). Hand 1 is far stronger contextually than all of the other hands, it's not even close. That is not to say that having 4 low trumps will never create issues, obviously it can and will sometimes, but you are really underestimating having Axxxx on this auction. It is similar to having AKQJ of trumps. It would be amazing. I mean hand 1 is a very good slam opposite x xxx xxxxx Axxx.

So a jumpshift is basically forcing past 3N opposite the worst possible bid for the jumpshifter unless theyre 5422?

If 4C is not a cue then I'd bid 4D.

Pats game was awesome. FU GIANTS.

Must be a ruling. I don't care if my partner tanked for 2 hours and said "I have a problem out loud", I would reopen X lol.

I would lead a heart, surprised it is so hated here. K432 is unlikely to cost a trick and we are leading through the length which is good. Could not agree more with fluffys comment though. I see a heart and a club as the only options fwiw

Yep thats totally the point

What will they shift to?

Choice between hearts and diamonds

Ofc all the facts are not noted in the OP. Like your table has been slow (there is an obligation to play the game within the time requirements, claiming on such a hand helps with that). But yes of course it is not a cultural thing, it is just a douchey thing to do to call the director. If your opponents are novices then maybe ask them how they will play it (OMG UNLAWFUL PLAY CEASES AFTER A CLAIM), but this was a world championship. The fact that it was one of the biggest known slimeballs in the game who called the director is not a shocker.

Yeah cuz that has worked totally awesome so far!

oh it's 1 in 17 million and not 1 in a billion OMG

West is ridiculous on hand 1 lol. Hand 2, they got you by opening 3H instead of 4H. Don't see how everyone is +140 anyways, if they opened 3H and I had the west hand I doubt I'd double and pass 3S.

OMG they punt to the returner with 20 seconds left, he makes a big return then fumbles, his teammate recovers, and the PUNTER gets a facemasking penalty....so now we have a 51 yard field goal in the 49-49 game where one QB has 6 TDs and 1 has 7 and a pick 6.

Giants-Saints is amazing. LOL @ not just auto onside kicking when every possession = TOUCHDOWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN for both teams.

3 small spades, 5 clubs, and both red aces is an 8 count that is a grand. You have to try for slam, how you do so depends on your methods.

I dont like 3H when I have 4 spades, not cuz I'm worried about missing spades but it makes it more likely they don't make anything (and I've noticed if they happen to get to 4S, partner is likely to misjudge and bid 5H some of the time since he has short spades obv and hopes to push them to 5S. A good example would be like, LHO bids 3S and partner bids 5H to pressure them). I would like 3H a lot with 6-4 with 4 of the other minor and a stiff spade, I'd probably always do that.

Id just bid game

I'd bid 3h since it might be our hand for game in hearts

I agree with this totally. Hope to see you again Mike.