Not Quite Self-Supporting


A J 5 4 2
2
10 9 6 4
9 7 3
7 3 6
J 9 5 3 8
8 7 2 A K J 5 3
A K 6 5 Q J 10 8 4 2
K Q 10 9 8
A K Q 10 7 6 4
Q Vul: Both
------ Contract: 6 hearts, 6 spades

EastSouthWestNorth
Pass 2 Pass 2
pass 3 * Pass 3
Pass 4 Pass 4
Pass 6 All pass* alert

EastSouthWestNorth
1 2 * Dbl 2
3 4 NT 5 Pass*
Pass 6 Dbl All pass * alert

Here is another hand where the value of a balanced suit as trump over an unbalanced, even if very powerful, will serve you better, as discussed here. There are indeed two potential advantages to the balanced suit as trump here, one of which turns out to be very, very real, the second of which depends on the opening lead.
The definite advantage is that with the unbalanced suit as a side suit, you can ruff out the jack of hearts, which of course cannot be done if you name hearts trump. And the possible advantage that depends on the opening lead is that if a diamond isn't led, with spades trump, you can sluff four diamonds on the hearts, ruffing one round, of course, and make an overtrick. But if hearts are trump, you get no sluffs on the balanced suit on the side and must lose a diamond whatever the opening lead.
Above are two bidding sequences by which declarers wound up in the wrong contract. In the first, I'm wondering if North's 4 heart bid wasn't a one-ace response to a presumed Gerber bid. There seems to be no other justification for it. Even so, North had bid his spade suit freely, and South should still have preferred spades to hearts. If you've got any holes in the spade suit, you're still going to have them relegating spades to a side suit. And if you don't have holes, that will clearly serve better as trump.
As for the second bidding sequence, there is absolutely no excuse for insisting on the presumed self-supporting suit with a known fit in spades. It can't possibly be better and can be worse, for which I don't need to offer any hypothetical situation. Hey, fella. You don't lose the value of that powerful heart suit by naming spades trump! On the contrary, you lose it totally. For here's a statistic to wake up those who are fixated on naming a long powerful suit trump in the face of good fit elsewhere (both majors): In a 6 heart contract, those powerful hearts bring zero points to your score (since you're going down): But in a spade slam, where you have 6 heart winners (and 6 spade), that heart suit brings in 180 points in trick score, plus half the game bonus plus half the slam bonus for better'n 700 points! For naming the other suit, the known fit, trump!
Had the choice been between that heart suit and a 5-5 minor, I wouldn't have blamed declarer a bit for insisting on hearts. Of course the 5-5 minor would be "safer", and slams offer a lot of points. But that 7-card heart holding will be self-supporting 9 times out of ten, or maybe 4 out of 5, and in a matchpoint game, I would consider it a reasonable choice gone South. However, when the balanced suit is another major, it's baffling that anyone would choose the unbalanced suit. That's novice bridge to think the powerful suit you see must be trump.
The other guys have such a powerful holding in the minors that they have a good sac over 6 spades. The holding also illustrates the value of cashing a top honor first when looking to finesse for a queen and then taking the hook on the second round -- often. It is often not practical for entry reasons and a few other. Seven clubs should be down only two. See Slam dunks
Only two bid the unmakable heart slam. The great majority in slam were in spades. But a little curiously, the overwhelming number doubled in a five-level contract were in hearts! -- 11 to 2 doubled in 5 spades. Now I have mentioned several times that if you're slam-bound, you don't want to get faked out by a double at the five level. If you redouble and there is a (little) slam there, you'll get more points than the people in slam (undoubled). In addition, you'd have a one-trick cushion, which of course, those in hearts would need here.
Well, isn't it possible that they know something I don't know and maybe we are going down. Obviously, I can't offer any guarantees against that. You'll have to judge for yourself just how confident you felt of your slam before the double. I can only say that the opponents have offered you both a one-trick cushion against what you expected to make, plus a better score than slam bidders. And I can also say that these 5-level doubles of slambound opponents aren't terribly rare on OKBridge.
If those in 5 hearts had redoubled, they would have raked in 1200 points, not as good as a slam in spades, of course, but respectable. Those in five spades redoubled would have picked up 1600 points, beating the slam bonus, though not, alas, those lucky enough to get doubled in 6 spades.