Julian Pottage
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With 3-card heart support and a singleton, I do not see why raising to 2H was a mistake. That is the normal action on the hand. If it happened not to work, that is unlucky.
With four hearts and four spades, partner could have doubled 1D rather than bidding 1H, so you are unlikely to be missing a spade fit by bidding 2H.
I would not consider 2S as a reverse on this auction but it does push the bidding higher and not an action I would make with only 11 HCP.
I would make a splinter bid with the East hand rather than simply raising diamonds. If that is not an option for you, 5D is the wrong number of diamonds to bid. A double raise to 4D should be forcing and would allow room for further exploration.
As it happens 6D is an OK but not a brilliant spot; you need the DQ or a singleton DA onside; this does make it within the odds.
With 14 HCP no way would I make a pre-emptive opening. I would open 1C, though admittedly I would not have an easy rebid over a 1S response. I guess I would have to rebid 3C. The South hand shown would rebid 3H. With the double diamond stopper it would then be possible to bid 3NT. I am not sure whether South would bid again over that.
If East overcalls 3D, South bids 3S (or possibly doubles) and North bids 5C. Reaching a slam with confidence is tricky.
If you play that you have already shown a 5-card major, you can still the jump to 3NT over a 2-level response as 15-17. The 2NT rebid would then be either 18-19 or support for responder. I have not tried playing a weak NT in conjunction with 5-card majors as it sounds like you but I do not see any reason why this method would not work.
I follow the principle of fast arrival, so 3NT shows 15-17 and only four cards in the major opened; the vast majority of the time the jump to 3NT ends the auction. 2NT is 15-19 (forcing) and if it is 15-17 the hand will either have a 5-card major, 4 cards in the other major or support for responder’s suit. Over 2NT responder can bid 3C on hands with slam interest, over which opener bids 3D to show 18-19, other bids being natural and 15-17. Over 2NT without slam interest responder bids naturally.
For simplicity I would treat the transfer 1S response the same way whatever specific holdings in the minors it does or does not promise.
If I was opening a minor, I would open 1C rather than 1D, in part because the clubs are so much better than the diamonds. It is right that East would make a 3S splinter over 1H response but I am not sure East would go all the way to a slam over the 4H sign off. East would make another try, perhaps raising 4H to 5H ormaking a cue bid of 5C or 5D (whichever suit East had not opened). West would then bid the slam on the strength of the 6-card heart suit.
As you can gather from the fact that this was a seminar subject I cannot give a quick answer, though I can give a couple of tips. There are two questions generally worth asking yourself.
1. Can I afford to lose the lead as many times as I would need to set up the suit?
2. Do I have enough entries to set up and run the suit?
Suppose you are South in 3NT with these cards on a low spade lead:
S A 4 H 107 5 D K Q J 10 9 4 C 8 6
S Q 9 H A K 8 2 D 3 C A K J 7 3 2
If East plays any spade other than the king, you win the first trick with the queen and the ace remains in dummy. You can afford to lose the lead once and you have the ace of spades as an entry to the long diamonds and so play on diamonds.
Now suppose East wins the first trick with the king of spades and returns the suit. In this case playing on diamonds would be a mistake for two reasons. Firstly, with the spades established, you cannot afford to lose the lead. Secondly, with no entry to dummy, you could not reach the long diamonds anyway. In this scenario the only chance is to finesse the jack of clubs at trick three.
Before I looked at the hand, I was going to say that I might open 2NT if the singleton is an honour but not if it is a small singleton. With my most regular partner we play that 1H-1S-3NT shows 20-21 points and a singleton spade. Here West would raise hearts and you would not get round to the 3NT rebid.
Yes, when using the losing trick count it is important to adjust if you have more queens than aces; with this hand you have two more queens than aces.
A jump raise would indeed promises 4 spades – if you are strong enough to jump, you should also be strong enough to reverse, so you would not be stuck if you had a good hand.
The more common transfer responses are 1C-1D and 1C-1H because people playing a prepared 1C opening also play 5-card majors and therefore give high priority to showing majors in response.
Something to bear in mind that is that people will sometimes open a prepared 1C on a balanced 11 and, because the opening bidder might have only a doubleton club, responder might bid with very few points if short in clubs. So the opponents could bid 1C-1D or 1C-1H with 11 points facing 3. They are less likely to respond 1S (showing diamonds) with a very weak hand because that elevates the level of the bidding.
A simple counter is that X in 4th seat shows a weak 1NT hand and that bidding their transfer suit at the 1 level is for takeout of that suit. Other bids are the same as if the opponents were not playing transfers.
In the particular case of the 1S response showing diamonds, you cannot cue bid 1D because that would be insufficient. In this case I Suggest X = 5S (i.e. a hand that would have overcalled 1S) and 2D= both majors. If you have a takeout of diamonds hand, you can pass knowing you will get another chance.
1D-1S-2S does not promise 4-card support. South might have a 3451 shape for example. Raising 1S to 2S better describes the hand than rebidding a moderate 5-card diamond suit. Even if partner has only 4 spades, you would rather play in a 4-3 fit in a major, with ruffs coming in the short trump hand, than a modest fit in diamonds (and on a bad day 2D would be a 5-1 ‘fit’).
If the opponents open one of your best suits and you have at least 15 points, you can overcall 1NT (or double if your hand is too strong for a 1NT overcall). If you have a weak no-trump hand with length in their suit, all you can do is pass and remember that partner is still there and can act with a weaker hand in fourth seat. In the reopening seat, a 1NT overcall shows 12-14 rather than 15-17, so it will be rare for you to miss anything much by passing. The only time you could have 25 points between you and let the opponents play at the one level is if you have precisely 14 points and partner precisely 11. If your side has the balance of power but not game values, you will defeat them at the one level and get reasonable compensation for what you might have made.
Most pairs would not have an agreement about this particular situation. If your partner bids 3NT and doubles 3S, it is clear that she has the stronger hand type. If you have a no-trump hand and the opponents have enough spades to be bidding and raising the suit with their limited strength, it is unlikely partner has much in spades. Doubling 3S on a hand with four hearts seems reasonable to me.
Incidentally, as Brian Davies has pointed out, many pairs play that partner would bid 3S directly over 2S to show four hearts and no spade stopper.
