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Board 2: South opens 1NT, much to the surprise of North who is looking at x AKQxxxx Axx Kx. The first thing to note is that North wants to set hearts as trumps and then begin cue-bidding or use a key-card asking bid. The second thing to note is that many partnerships have no way for North to make a forcing bid in his suit! Standard bidding offers a simple solution: jump to 3H, a game-force with 5+ hearts. Using transfers, North could transfer and bid 4NT if not interested in slam; or transfer and bid a new suit at the three level to force to game, suggesting an unbalanced hand possibly with slam interest; or bid Stayman and then jump in his suit with 5-4 in the majors. If you play splinters, a popular treatment is that transfer-then-jump-shift is a "self splinter", showing a singleton or void in the suit jumped to. With all these agreements in place, the direct jump to 3H or 3S can be limited to a single-suited hand (5-7 card length) with slam interest and no singleton or void.
Here, North responds 2D, a transfer, then jumps to 3S to show the singleton, six or more trumps and slam interest (no reason to show the singleton if you aren't interested in slam.) South is discouraged by the wasted values (AK tight) opposite the singleton, and despite good controls signs off at 4H. North, of course, continues with 4NT, asking for Aces or Key cards; South replies 5H to show two. That accounts for 8 of South's 15-17 hcp; will the remaining 7-9 be enough to cover both small diamonds? Two Kings or a KQ combo or AQJx in clubs will obviously work. May as well bid 5NT, confirming all the Aces (or all five key cards plus the Queen of trumps), inviting grand slam and (almost incidentally) allowing partner to tell you how many Kings he has. South answers "two" with a 6H reply and North can confidently bid 7NT.
Another approach, of course, is for North to simply bid Gerber (4C), follow with the King-ask (usually 5C) which also makes it obvious there are 13 tricks. One significant difference: the Gerber King-ask, 5C, does not generally promise all the Aces; sometimes responder is simply trying to decide between six of his long suit or 6NT.
Board 17: North has an interesting 1516 hand, a shade light for an opening 1 bid and not really suitable for a preempt given the good hearts. I'd pass and hope to show my suits later. East opens 1S; West plans to bid game in spades but no immediate raise is suitable -- Jacoby 2NT should promise 4 trumps, which will help opener evaluate his hand better for slam purposes. Besides, slam might be better in diamonds or hearts, using a 4-4 as trumps and discarding losers on the long spades. The best response is a simple 2D, planning to jump in spades later, suggesting the three-card support.
East has a lovely 3S rebid, showing a powerful suit and extra values. Some authorities demand a solid suit for this bid, especially in a 2/1 Game Force style, but it seems to me 4NT can clear up whether any high trump is missing and the suit is certainly playable opposite a void. West has too much for a meek raise to 4S; better is a 4H cue-bid. How can East tell this isn't a real suit? If East had hearts he would not have skipped over them to jump in spades; there's rarely any need to introduce a new suit at the four level in the absence of enemy preemption.
The slam move encourages East ot proceed with 4NT (Blackwood or RKCB), West repleis 5H to show 2 aces, and East bids either 6S or 6NT. I think it's a fair bet West's diamonds will provide the needed 12th trick for 6NT, and that proves true today. Doesn't matter -- only one pair reached this excellent slam.
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