If you're going to overbid, your declarer play must be good enough to
support those aggressive bidding tendencies. Here's a hand where
declarer didn't pay quite enough attention to the small cards.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #45
Dlr
E
Vul
E/W
A1032
108
A64
QJ93
KJ9
QJ932
J8
A104
Q654
76
Q9732
52
87
AK54
K105
K876
West
North
East
South
Pass
1
Pass
1
Pass
1NT
Pass
2NT
Pass
3NT
All Pass
BIDDING: North decided
his eleven high card points and club fit warranted an invitation to
game. South had nothing extra, no long suit, and no fit with
partner so he should have passed 2NT.
PLAY: West led the queen
of hearts and South stopped to count his tricks. He saw 1 spade,
2 hearts, 2 diamonds, and (hopefully) 3 clubs, which left him one trick
short. Hoping for a miracle, he won the first heart and knocked
out the ace of clubs. West returned the heart jack and declarer,
after failing to find a helpful diamond or spade holding in the
opponents' hands, conceded down one. I'm sure you've noticed by
now that if declarer had returned the five of hearts after winning the
second heart, his four would be the ninth trick. It's
fairly standard stuff to remember the aces and kings but this hand
shows why it is so important to also keep track of the smaller
cards.
