This freakish hand came up in our Gold Cup match (against a solid team from Norfolk), and it seems quite difficult to criticize the bidding at Toby and Teymur's table, though the final score (7 –3) is absurd. Toby has a lot of options with his rebid, and it is clearly right to force to game. It is tempting to support diamonds immediately, but there are drawbacks to all the ways of doing so: 3 is non-forcing, so is 3NT (pudding raise), 4 or 4 (splinter) are too committal to diamonds (there are good chances that spades will be better). Ruling those out leaves you with a choice between 3 and 3, and Toby chose the latter based on his poor spade texture (I agree). At our table the alternative 3 bid resulted in a simple Blackwood auction to 6, doomed by the trump break.

Back in the open room, Teymur was too strong to bid 3NT, and after checking Chiinners was not sitting opposite, probed with the fourth suit. Toby rebid his spades with extra length, and Teymur now has no obvious bid. Toby suggests, and I agree, that FSF followed by 3NT should show a hand to strong for a straight 3NT, but Teymur was worried that it might not, and instead gave half-hearted club support (4 immediately over 3 was available with definite support). Toby had at least three-quarter-hearted diamond support, and poor clubs, so bid 4. Again, this can't be a full-blooded raise as he had lots of chance to raise earlier. A couple of cue-bids followed, and then Teymur, unsure of where his tricks were coming from but sure that there was enough combined strength for a slam, leapt majestically to 6NT. Not to be outdone, Toby, seeing four first-round controls in his own hand and better trumps that might be expected, corrected to 7.

Are either of these last two bids dodgy? Teymur's seems pretty reasonable, although 5NT (pick a slam) is a possible alternative. I don't really think he has any reason to want to play in a Moyesian fit though, so 6NT is looking pretty good. Toby's 7 also looks reasonable with all those controls, and Teymur has suggested five diamonds. Against that, I think Teymur could have looked for 7 himself with no risk (via RKCB) if four key cards opposite were enough; he also has a good picture of Toby's distribution.