Good bidding by one person in a partnership can sometimes be undone by impetuosity on the part of the other.
Board 28 from 13-06-2019
Dealer W NS Vul
If West opens a weak 2D the bidding will be quite different than it was when it was related to me. Pre-empts are there to make life difficult for the opposition but in this case West did not need to do anything in order for NS to self destruct without help or hindrance.
After West passed as dealer, North opened 1H and South responded 1S. West still said nothing and now North made the excellent bid of 3C. This was game forcing, as everyone will agree, and also showed 5(+) hearts. Sensible Norths should use the jump shift in a minor, especially clubs, to indicate the game forcing strength and length in the first bid suit. This approach is infinitely preferable to the somewhat crude option of blindly following the point count lessons and bidding 3NT just because they have “18 or 19 points”. North, this time, was also interested to know whether South had more than four spades, but South wasn’t telling. Instead, she now launched into an ace ask and then bid 6NT. South was right about one thing: a slam was there, but South was not at all interested in discussing things with partner. 6NT has no hope whereas 6S is stone cold unless South manages to play that as badly as she bid the hand.
If you would like to know more about the declarer play and how and why South should play the 6S slam, you should enroll for my “Declare and Defend” series which is starting soon. Alternatively, or as well as, you can replay this board by clicking here.
AQ3
KQ863
54
AK7