Julian Pottage
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In common with many bridge players, your partner seems to have an exaggerated opinion of his own skill. If as opener you had 11 or 12 points with four spades and five hearts, you would open 1H and raise 1S to 2S. His suggestion that you need reversing values to open 1H with 4-5 in the majors is wrong.
He is also wrong in saying that rebids of 2C and 2D show a minimum hand, though opener might rebid 2C or 2D with a minimum. opener can have up to 17 points and rebid 2C or 2D. The only rebids that say opener is definitely minimum are 2H and 2S.
The opening hand has 16 points in high cards and one for the doubleton so it does have 17 points in total. The single raise to 2S shows a minimum opening hand. I would put the maximum for 2S at 15 points. Everyone plays that a raise to 2S shows a minimum opening hand, so on this occasion it is not a matter of partnership agreement and you can tell your partner that he is wrong.
You need to agree with your partner which you are going to play it. My usual circle play it as takeout but I know Bernard plays it as penalties.
With 16 HCP opener should jump to 3S. With all those aces and kings, opener should not bid 2S on the basis of 7 losers – one needs to adjust the losing trick count valuation when the hand has significantly more aces than queens.
I would respond 4C on the North hand, a natural slam try showing a 6-card club suit. Please do not tell me that you play this as Gerber!
I do not understand how you finished in 3Nt after the start to the auction you had. Surely North would bid 3H to show a fifth heart and then South is never going to bid 3NT with small diamonds knowing North has eleven cards in the rounded suits.
Are you saying that North bid 3NT over 3D? Showing the fifth heart is a much better option. The fourth suit bid of 3D merely asks for further description and does not force opener to bid NT on any hand with some sort of high cards in the fourth suit.
It is less likely you will raise with 3-card suit after 1D-1H then on some other auctions because opener can rebid 1S or 2C without reversing.
It is usual to play that 1D-1H-2C-2D-2H shows a decent hand so with a minimum opening you should raise 1H to 2H rather than rebidding your second suit if you have 3-card heart support and a singleton in the other black suit.
Raising with 3-card support would be more likely after 1C-1S because then opener has fewer options: 2C and 2S are the only actions consistent with a minimum opening.
You could bid 3C and then if appropriate bid again. 3C is either a game try or a slam try.
Some people do play 2NT as an enquiry, though I have never done so myself. If you have 11 points with four hearts, you want to be able to bid a natural non-forcing 2NT.
PS It would not be universal to play 4D (a jump in partner’s suit) as a splinter. Without agreement, 3D is a non-forcing game try with four hearts and four diamonds; 4D is a forcing with longer diamonds than hearts,
If you are playing 3D as a slam try (and this is what Bernard recommends) then North with an ace and three kings should not be signing off. A raise to 4D sounds like 3-card support while with strength in all the suits bidding any one of them could be misleading. Perhaps 4NT should say ‘I do not have 3-card diamond support but I do have a good hand, probably with a doubleton honour in diamonds and strength in all the other suits’. It is fair to say that most pairs would not have discussed this.
