Fit Jumps 2017-12-16 Hand 7

Board 7 North Deals Both Vul	♠ 10 5 3 ♥ K Q 4 ♦ Q 7 ♣ A J 4 3 2
♠ 6 4 2 ♥ J 8 6 3 ♦ K 8 5 4 ♣ 9 5	N W E S	♠ K Q J 9 7 ♥ 10 5 ♦ J 9 6 3 ♣ 8 6
	♠ A 8 ♥ A 9 7 2 ♦ A 10 2 ♣ K Q 10 7

West	North	East	South
	1 ♣	Pass	2 ♦
Pass	2 NT	Pass	3 NT
All pass

3 NT by North

Lead: ♠ K

Made 5 — NS +660

Remember 2 ♦ shows hearts and 2 NT shows 12-14 balanced (aside from the exceptions created by the last example).

Responder has extras with 17 but not so much that a slam try is in order. Note the problems if responder had the 15 with a stiff (this time in hearts rather than the stiff spade in the previous hand on the auction 1 ♣ 1 ♥ ...) that opener had last time. Slam will often be extremely good opposite a stiff heart, say ♠ Kxx ♥ x ♦ Kxxx ♣ Axxxx with the addition of either the spade or diamond queen making the slam almost cold and just the jack in either suit making it playable.

This suggests that perhaps 3 ♣ is better than 2 NT from opener with that 15 as at least responder can then imagine the potentially useful shortage.

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