A Self-Contained Fit II

7
K Q J 9 8 4 3
9
A K Q 3
K Q 9 6 4 10 3 2
10 5 A 7 6
K 10 Q J 7 6 2
9 8 7 4 J 6
A J 8 5
2
A 6 5 4 3
10 5 2

SouthWestNorthEast
Pass Pass 2 Pass
2 Pass 2 Pass
2 Dbl 4 Pass
4 NT Pass 5 Dbl
Redbl All pass

SouthWestNorthEast
1 2 2 Pass
3 Pass 3 Pass
4 Pass 4 All pass

A self-contained fit is ostensibly a contradiction in terms, since we think of a "fit" as the cards of two hands combining to form a right nice trump suit. Nevertheless, it's an understandable term for those hands where one partner's suit is so strong that he can live with a singleton in his partner's hand -- or less, maybe. And particularly if this is a major would I counsel taking the bull by the horns and insisting on that suit as the above North player should certainly have done.
Well, what constitutes a "self-contained fit"? With a six-card suit, I'd be a little leery of insisting on that suit for trump opposite suit bids. (An opening no trump traditionally promises two cards, and we're not talking about such hands here.) But if it seemed the only viable route (i.e., we clearly are missing a no trump stopper in one suit), I'd want the top four cards in the suit where my partner may have a singleton or even a void, or I'd try something else, like "pass".
With seven cards, I'd feel comfortable with the top three cards, i.e., comfortable with insisting on my (major) suit for trump, and with eight cards, yes, I think I'd feel comfortable with the top two cards, or even less than the top two, like K Q. That's a powerful potential with 8 cards, and I'd sure hate to see it dissipated, except for second round control, on another suit.
I just witnessed a case where a woman opened the bidding with a spade, holding 6 of 'em with the top three, jump rebid 3 spades over her partner's minimum bid and then allowed his 3 no bid to hold. Down one when 4 spades was making. Declarer didn't have the stoppers or entries to exploit the 5th and 6th rounds of the suit, when spades split 4-2. So he blamed her and she thought she'd described her hand well enough. Who was right?
That's a close call. Had spades split 3-3, the no trumper woulda been cockahoop with his extra ten points in that matchpoint event. I said above that I'd want the top four in insisting on a six-card suit. But a tolerance for no trump instead of rebidding his best suit suggests at least one spade, maybe two with a reasonable chance of getting 6, or at least five winners in the suit when it's trump. So let's say that it wasn't an outrageous decision on either partner's fault, and let it goe at that.
The same cannot be said of the above bidding. Both partners were at fault, but South was outrageously so. North should've insisted on that heart suit for trump. Does he have enough? It would seem so. Would he have had enough if East had picked up the 10 of hearts along with the 3 he has? No, that would mean that East has two heart winners coming. But what the hey! You can always go back and tweak a hand to show what glories or disasters might've been there, and that's pointless.
But South's bidding, though he'd rightly sniffed out a slam, was terrible. Since the bidding was opened at the two level, and North jumped two levels on his third bid, there wasn't a lot of room to explore. And so South should simply have trusted that leap to four hearts with no indication of hearts in the South hand. There is really no other choice. Either you pass or you say 6 hearts, upon learning that you have 3 aces, but there's no other suit. Since "two diamonds" traditionally shows a weak holding opposite a 2 club opening and "five diamonds" was clearly a Blackwood response, the redouble of 5 diamonds doubled can only be ambiguous. Is South saying, "Hey, pard, that turkey made an incautious double! I can live with a singleton in your hand!"? Or is it an S.O.S. redouble, a call for help, as if he needed one, since North had already indicated a one-suited hand. Well, it's clearly not showing a self-sustaining diamond suit, and South shouldn't need to be told again what suit his partner favors, it was a completely ridiculous call.
This pair was down 2200 point, not merely missing a slam in a game bid, not merely butchering a slam for down one, but inviting a truly miserable and costly score: minus 21 IMP's. Making 6 hearts brought 12 IMP's, down one (as several were): minus 12 IMP's.
Oh, there is nothing like a fit. (Sung to the tune of "There is Nothing like a Dame")