Dear Diary, Tonight, for the first time, I did it

Tonight's Rock Around the Clock, was pretty exciting. I finally got a gambling 3nt hand, that I got to open. Well, we ended up in five x down 29,000,000. Turned out to be an average. -.1 I think Or something like that. They had a h game, so overall not a bad sac.
Then last round we played against a star player. That always scares me. My blood gets cold and I can feel my iq dropping, physically feel it. Well, I held
S: Jxxx
H: QT963
D: AJ
C: 52
The star player sat on my left. Rho opened 1c -p-1h-p-1s-p-2c (checkback stayman) -p-2h(max open 3hearts)-p-4h-p-p-...
Well I looked at my hand and I knew x had to be right, right? But I also knew that this woman could outplay me in her sleep. And I could imagine Rabbit cringing when I x'd. But it had to be right, right? Well, down 1 and we made 4.7 imps against a star player.

Speaking of star players, here's a hand that I saw at Essess's table last month that still intrigues me:
He sat north and held:
S: AJ986
H: 108
C: AJ10974

The dealer was west who opened 1h, Essess overcalled 2h, east bid 2n -p-p-4c. I was fascinated by his 4c. I mean I would have bid three every day of the weak, but 4? So, I assume the man has some idea what he's about, not only does he have a star next to his name, he has a good sense of humor. So, if we take it as a given that 4c is better than 3c why?

And EW went down three x in 6d for -.27 for NS. I think, it got a good result, if not in imps then at least in getting ew to play in a lousy contract. But why 4 rather than three? So, the best I can come up with is this, his hand has no real defensive value. And opps stopped short of game with no obvious fit, so p can be counted on to show up with something. And game contracts score more points than partscores (unless they don't make.) Just a really interesting bid. If anyone can explain for me, I sure wish you would.