LEARNING CENTER

4. You have enough for game, but no interest in slam. Control bidding should always suggest interest in slam. 

4. Yes, partner bid diamonds before, but we have spade suit agreement, so we don't care about the diamond suit anymore. We can't use Blackwood here since we could be losing the first two tricks in clubs. By making a control bid in diamonds, we are telling partner we do not have a club control since we bid our controls up the line. 

4NT. You have controls in every suit and enough combined strength for slam. You want to go to slam if you aren't missing two keycards (which is unlikely). You might even be able to make 7 if you have all of the keycards. 

3. You are excited about your hand, but you can't control bid until you have suit agreement. Bidding 3 here follows the principle of fast arrival. Going slowly says, "I have a good hand for hearts and am happy to control bid". If you had a worse hand, you could jump to 4 (Arriving Fast) to show a hand with a fit and no slam interest.

4. You have extra values, but unfortunately your partner is telling you that he doesn't have diamonds covered. That's bad news if you want to be in slam. Partner's 4 bid could be an ace (except you have the ace), a king, a singleton or a void, but it does not say anything about length in the suit--you absolutely have to bid 4.