Overtricks Count as Much

Q J 2
8 7
A J 10 7 2
A 9 7
7 5 4 K 3
A K J 10 6 5 Q 9 3 2
Q 8 4 9 6 3
6 J 10 5 4
A 10 9 8 6
4
K 5 Contract: 4 spades, 6 spades
K Q 8 3 2 Opening lead: A of hearts

On the day I picked this hand up, it was the second one where there was a greater disparity between contract and overtricks than between contract and going down! So much for being indifferent to overtricks in these matchpoint games. You're throwing away more points than an occasional missed slam or an occasional butchered game contract. Here's the tally for this hand: down one: 3 matchpoints. Nobody was plus 4! Plus five: 39% and plus six, 86%, a sizable 47 matchpoint bonus for that second overtrick, where the difference between plus 5 and minus 1 was only 36 matchpoints.
Well, having said that, lemme look at the hand, particularly in relation to four-card holdings. We see the hand is a cakewalk for a declarer who seeks to exploit first one minor suit and then another, rather than lazily banking on an even break in clubs. We note that the K of spades is not only onsides, but also doubleton, meaning we've got an extra entry to dummy. Everybody got a heart opening lead and heart continuation. Now one declarer cashed the K of diamonds and finessed the 10! We see that it works, but I would think it just a little safer go to the ace here. I wanna test diamonds for either the Q falling doubleton, or 3-3 before resorting to clubs.
Hence, K of diamonds, low to the A, Q of spades. Now if East covers first round, you've got an entry you don't need for the finesse. You win, cash the 10 of spades, low to the jack, ruff a diamond and bingo. You can now think of having established a good dummy, or of sluffing two clubs on the long diamonds, as you wish. If East doesn't cover first round, there's not much reason for continuing with the J. You've got the A 10 9 in the closed hand. Lead low, picking up the K, back to the J and ruff a diamond, etc.
Since the finesse works also, you can hardly go wrong testing the diamond suit, particularly if you guard the use of that second spade honor in dummy. While those who don't test diamonds before clubs are bound for disappointment . . . unless they've got a careless defender on their right.
This declarer squandered his chance at testing diamonds when there was nothing risky or clever at issue at all. Opening lead a heart and a heart continuation, as mentioned for all. Diamond K, diamond to the A, Q of spades, covered! That should have made it awful easy. Cash the 10 of spades, back to the J, ruff a diamond with the closed hand's last trump and claim. But this declarer squandered his entries. Back to the J of spades, second round of trump, now come to the closed hand for the third round! He didn't really haff to reverse that order. He can go to the J second round, provided he uses that card to ruff a diamond. Since he has all high trump, for heaven's sake, he can do that in perfect safety and then draw the last round of trump.
Anyway, back to the hand. At trick 7, declarer leads a low spade to the 10, thereby committing himself to a losing path, since he now has only the A of clubs entry to dummy and needs two entries if he wants to ruff out the diamonds and then use them. Unfortunately for the defense, on that same trick, East sluffed off . . . the four of clubs! He sluffed off that 4 of clubs while holding (read 'em and weep): the 9 of hearts, the Q of hearts (though declarer had ruffed the second round and the only hearts left are held by West), and the 9 of diamonds! ! ! while dummy is showing the J and 10! As if maybe the 9 will leapfrog over them? Wouldn't one useless heart been enough to save? And what's worse, his four-card suit was headed by the J 10! One would think any bridge player would recognize that four cards headed by the J 10 just might be of some value, fourth round. But it wasn't to be.
That cost the defense 47 matchpoints. Don't tell me that's not expensive.

As for the defender here, this has to be the most flagrant flouting of the value of four-card holdings I've come across, both in terms of what he saved (all useless) and the suit he didn't value -- headed by a J 10! Here's a hand where the highest (and very valuable) card in a four-card holding was the seven!. And there were defenders saving it!