Yes, we discussed that in the post-mortem. 
I was contemplating just opening 6H, which is what happened at some other tables.
That can’t be right on a 2-suited hand. Partner could have (say) S KJxx H x D Jxxxx C xxx, and 6H goes down while 7D is a make.
I saw an unusual bidding sequence the other day:
Playing Acol, you open 1H on the very nice-looking
S Axx
H KQJTxxx
D -
C Axx
And with opponents silent, the bidding goes:
1H - 1S (does not promise 5)
3H - 4NT (Blackwood)
5H (2 Aces) - 6D!
Now what? And what is partner holding?
I think you have to pass this. Partner sounds like a strong two-suiter with solid diamonds.
5H is an incorrect response here as you have a void. If you’re playing proper Blackwood, you should jump to 5N to show 2 aces and useful void. The more usual convention is to jump a level (i.e. bid 6H here) to show two aces and a void.
I thought Acol players open strong twos with good playing strength (and pay less attention to point count)?
Anyway, partner must want to play in hearts and is showing good diamonds… fishing for 7:
S - QJxxxx
H - Ax
D - AKQx
C - x
Without wishing to disagree with the other responses from more experienced players, I would read this as 4NT is partner agreeing hearts as trumps (because you shouldn’t go hunting for a slam if you haven’t agreed a suit), and 6D must surely be a cue bid showing second round control of diamonds, but not clubs. This means you will probably have a club loser, so you correct to 6H which should end the auction and be a decent contract. I would suggest partner has something like S KQxx (hopefully!), H Axx, D AKx, C xxx - this looks like 6H makes, though they could of course have 4 clubs and you go down.
K364 - Sorry, I should have mentioned that opponents (because it was opponents who drew this one) were playing a modernised Acol with 3 weak 2s - and the hand, while nice, doesn’t qualify for a full-on 2C.
At the table, opener tanked for a very long time and ultimately retreated to his 7-card suit - 6H, which became the final contract.
His partner put down:
S KJTxx
H x
D AKQxxx
C x
I think that’s the first time I’ve seen someone introduce a genuine suit at the 6 level in an uncontested auction.
Biotop was closest, but I think if you read 6D as a two-suiter, your choice is between 6H & 6S, rather than passing partner out with a void in his suit!
Naturally, these being opponents, 6H turned out to be the only makeable slam (I had S Q9xx over the spade bidder and was hoping to double 6S)
Doubling a slam is often a bad idea as opponents can often retreat into a less-expensive slam. Or even one that makes. Or use the double to place the cards. In that last case, your Spade holding could become worthless. OTOH against 6S, the killer lead is a club, removing the late entry to the Hearts, so a double from your partner - a Lightner double - might well be appropriate.
Wouldn’t a Lightner double of 6S after the 1H opening call for a Heart lead? A club looks pretty natural, whether you read 6D as a control or a suit.
I agree that the rest of your comment is good advice in general (e.g. if the spades and hearts had been swapped it would be wrong to double 6H and potentially push them into 6s).
However on this particular hand they have no plausible safer slam to retreat to from 6S, my trump trick is safe unless dummy somehow shows up with AJT/KJT and the bidding makes it likely that they have a quick loser somewhere, so 6S is good odds-on to go down.
If you are interested in finding about second round control, you would probably ask for kings by bidding 5NT over 5H. Many experts play that 6D in this type of sequence asks for third-round control. I suspected that not to be the intent in this case, and my favored action was to bid 5S, assuming partner had a two-suiter.
Well, partner has bid this horribly, making it tough to get right. Why on earth has he bid 1S holding a strong hand with 6 diamonds and 5 spades? Better is to start with 2D, planning to bid spades twice, thereby showing the 5-6 distribution. The 3H bid puts the kibosh on this plan. I would still bid spades next (so we have 1H - 2D - 3H - 3S) and over partner’s likely 4H bid raise to 5H.
Yes
A Lightner double asks for an unusual lead. Not necessarily a trump lead. And it’s common to lead through strength.
It’s not a trump lead - the contract we were talking about leading against was 6S. Yes, the double asks for an unusual lead, but that is most commonly dummy’s first-bid suit.
Agreed - in Acol, you’re supposed to bid naturally, so start with your longest suit and go from there. They were very lucky to get to the best contract.
I would suggest the bidding should have gone as follows:
1H
2D
2H (not much else to say about the hand yet, shows extra length and/or strength in hearts)
2S (showing at least 5-4 distribution in diamonds-spades)
But here I get a bit stuck. What should opener bid now? 3H doesn’t seem very helpful and may lead to the auction stopping there, prematurely. But a suit hasn’t been agreed yet - it could be hearts, spades, or possibly even diamonds. Clearly NT is to be avoided as neither side has a balanced hand. I don’t know much about how it works, but is this an appropriate time to use fourth suit forcing and bid 3C? If that is interpreted as a cue bid showing first round control of clubs, that works out fine! Let’s see where we get to:
3C
3S (to show 6-5 in diamonds-spades)
Opener now knows there is an 8-card fit in spades, and with his distribution could be thinking of a slam. I think he can bid 4NT (Blackwood) agreeing spades as trumps. But this isn’t helpful because on the 5D response, he doesn’t know if it is the heart ace or the diamond ace. So, try to cue bid or do we need to agree spades as trumps first? Opener only has 14 points so if I were them here, I would bid 4S and leave it to partner to decide whether to go on.
4S
4NT (Blackwood)
5H
6S (knowing there is at least one loser but expecting everything else to be covered)
Presumably this goes 1 down, losing a trump and the heart ace. Is there an error in my analysis above or is this just one of those things? If the latter, presumably you wouldn’t generally get a deal like this in a competition because it seems unfair to reward people who luckily fall into 6H (making) instead of the correctly-bid 6S (down 1) - but I accept my analysis could well be wrong.
The problem with this is that 2H is non-forcing. If partner has enough to respond at the 2-level, we want to be in game. AD and a black king and 4H is a great contract. To force, you need to bid 3H (or even 4H - at this stage you are really not thinking about finding a spade fit). Playing 2 over 1 gives you more room to explore fits. 2D would be game forcing and then the auction can proceed 2S - 3H - 3S, as you say.
Although you should not be at this point in the auction because of the non-forcing 2H bid, 3C as fourth suit forcing says nothing at all about clubs, and would be a reasonable choice with a similar but weaker hand.
It’s all getting murky. 4C should be taken as a cue bid, I think, but if you are not a regular partnership, partner might be starting to think a wheel has come off.
Forget the point count. You have 8 tricks plus diamond ruffs in your own hand. This is a great slam opposite KQJxx - Qxxxxx Kx. Of course, it is terrible opposite Qxxxx - KQJxxx Kx. Maybe you can persuade partner to go ahead with the right sort of hand by bidding 5S - looking for him to bid 6 with good trumps.
You get whatever is dealt (usually by a machine these days). Sometimes you will do the right thing but get a bad result. Or opponents will do the wrong thing and get a good result. The last time I played an opponent miscounted points and opened a 15-17 1NT holding 19 points. They were the only pair in the room to stay out of a game that went down. A complete bottom for us. That’s why you play lots of boards (the higher the competition, the more are played, generally) - to reduce the effect of occasional unlucky boards.
Great analysis as usual and thanks for the answer to the last point - all much appreciated.
A simple repeat of the suit at the 2 level is the weakest possible rebid. One you could make having opened on 10 HCP and 6 cards in the suit.
Yeah, introducing your second suit at the 6 level after Blackwood is crazy. The Blackwood bidder should be able to place the contract after the Blackwood response.
But this is a good discussion to have with your partner - what is the meaning of these unusual cue bids after Blackwood?
Some nice analysis here and I agree with amarone that this hand is hard to bid in Acol.
I think it should go 1H - 2D 3H - 3S 4H - and then I’m not sure how responder investigates slam further.
4S can be passed and likely will be if opener has more Spades than Diamonds.
I don’t think 4NT is Blackwood and if it is it agrees Hearts by implication.
5C is clearly a slam try, but how does it find out about opener’s 3rd Spade or 2 Aces?
There’s a case to be made for not trying to investigate slam - sure you have a nice hand, but it’s worth a lot less without Spade or Diamond support from partner and all the indications are that you’re facing a complete misfit.
The 1S response would have been motivated by the desire to show the strong major suit early, rather than struggle to show the 5th Spade after 1H - 2D. After the 3H rebid there’s no way to get the auction back on track and 4NT just doubles down on the confusion. Presumably he was intending to pass a 5D Blackwood response!