Who needs 3NT anyway?

Played in a club pairs game with Neil Wylie (whose name I think I mispelled last time I mentioned him). Neil is a very fun guy to hang out with - don't know exactly how old he is, but I'd say comfortably over 60. He quite often goes on 100 mile bike rides, and has great stories of playing bridge at the big rubber clubs in London a few decades ago. Last time we played a teams match we ended up in a lock-in in a nearby pub discussing Independence and Scottish real estate until about 2 in the morning...

Our score was disappointing. We were probably a good 3 tops above average at halfway, and managed to slip to slightly below (possibly related to the pint of beer at half time...), but it was fun as always, and these two (consecutive) boards were the highlight:

	Neil		John
W	N	E	S
	1♥	-	1♠
-	2♣	-	2♦
-	3NT	-	6♣

My bidding might seem a little crude, but I don't think there's too much wrong with it. I was pretty confident I wanted to be in a slam when Neil rebid 2♣, and could have just jumped to 6♣ then and there, but decided to give him a chance to show some delayed spade support. There's no point fishing around for slam after Neil's bid 3NT, as playing in 5 of a minor is always going to be a disaster when we have this many points, so I just bid it. I'm quite glad I did, because that meant it was even more fun when I did essentially the same thing on this board:

	Neil		John
W	N	E	S
		-	1♣
X	1♠	-	2♣
-	3NT	-	6♣

I was planning to reverse with the South hand, which might not be textbook, but I think gets across the playing strength more accurately than anything else. When West doubled, and Neil bid spades, I was worried we might be in some sort of misfit, and settled for a simple 2♣ response. However, all that changed when Neil showed some genuine values by jumping to 3NT. Not only did this show values, it also pretty much promised that some of them were in hearts (West has promised hearts, I've done nothing to suggest that I might have a heart stop). Assuming Neil had at least 1 club for this bid, and probably 2, I really couldn't picture a hand where 6♣ didn't have any play, and decided once again that there was no point fishing around, and just bid it. With the heart finesse giving you plenty of entries to dummy, you have time to ruff out the spades, draw trumps and pitch the 4th heart on the 5th spade, which means you don't even need to worry about the position of the 9 of hearts. Another reasonably good slam, bid and made.

♠♥♦♣

A few rounds later, we had this auction: 

	Neil		John
W	N	E	S
		-	-
-	1♥	-	1♠
-	3NT	-	6♥

I wasn't really sure what to bid on the first round. Having already passed, I guess a splinter in ♦s is probably the right move on the South hand, but I decided I would bid 1♠ and rebid 4♥. When Neil leapt to 3NT over 1♠, showing something like 18+, I again couldn't really visualise a hand where 6♥ didn't have play, and just bid it (this time it's my own fault we don't have room to explore - having not supported hearts on the first round, I don't think there's any way I can agree them now, and have time to settle in 4♥, or even 5♥ if it turns out that things aren't looking good for the slam). Three leaps to slam, three comfortably making contracts... who needs 3NT?