This week’s pair successfully reached the correct contract, but squandered a chance to gain a valuable extra trick …
A fine agreement is that, having agreed a minor-suit, any new bids made at the 2 or 3-level are stopper-showing bids looking for a no-trump contract. In the old days, these were called Minor-suit Trial bids. Hence, South, rather than leaping to 5D, bids 2H to indicate a stopper in hearts, hoping that partner can show a stopper in spades, which North duly does. South can now bid the no-trump game with some confidence.
On 4♥ lead, there is little point in holding up, as the club finesse must be taken into the West hand anyway. With ace doubleton the only stop in the suit led, it is often right to win immediately: it can lead to blockages and implies confidence.
Crossing to dummy in diamonds, declarer leads a club and finesses, happy that it holds the trick. She returns to dummy with another high diamond and finesses again. Upon cashing A♣, East and West both follow, meaning that dummy’s 13th club is a winner. At the table, South had played 2♦ on the first round to reach dummy. Had she preserved this card, using 6♦ or 7♦ instead, she could have played 2♦ on the third round to reach the table with 3♦ or 5♦, cashed her 7♣, and recorded a second overtrick.