This hand first appeared to me as a Winner-Enabler played, or rather misplayed, by West above, who pitched a club (which he could ruff) on the second round of hearts, then guessed wrong on the Q of diamonds for down one. Which I guess is one reason for going easy on the unilateral sac bids (i.e., where partner hasn't indicated any liking for your suit)i.e., that the opponents either cannot or will not make their bid. Of course we'll never know if the opponents of the declarer here would've made 6 spades or not, but we'll just say it's not likely that two people would butcher such a simple hand.
But the score here first drew my attention. Down nine! For minus 2300! More than twice what opponents could make, about 2.5 times as much. That's expensive. (Minus 16.5 IMP's) However, the failure to offer the right preference here is the most glaring misstep. You hafta remember that every trump you have they don't have, so one more trump actually means two more in the difference. If you have 8 trump, you have three more than they do, and if you have 9 trump, you have five more. That could easily represent a big difference, and North here is certainly obligated to show preference for hearts, presuming he understands that 3 is greater than 2.
I won't go through the play of that disaster. The only question now is whether N-S had a viable sac in hearts. You know, it's far more difficult to analyze, where declarer might lose the lead 3 or 4 times, than it is a slam, where declarer commonly loses the lead only once if that often. The former allows for many more permutations on the hand. Still, I'll go through two basic lines of play, the first a force with the A of spades, ruffed by declarer, and a low club lead. West wins and shifts to trump, the Q drawing the Ace. Declarer loses another club to East's A, whereupon East cashes the K of hearts and continues the suit, eliminating a club ruff.
Six tricks have been played (a spade lead, two club leads and three hearts). Each side has won 3. The hand would then look like this:
6 5
------
Q 9 8 5 2
------
K 10 9
Q J 8
------
------
K J 3
A 10 7 4
K
------
------
J 7
6
Q 10 9 7
And declarer unfortunately has two tricks to lose: one more club and a diamond, for down "one too many". It's really a 2 heart hand that declarer does his best to stretch to 3 hearts (or down 4 and a minus 800 score).
Well, lemme try a forcing game: Ace of spades opening lead, ruffed, club to the J, K of spades, ruffed, club to the A, Q of spades ruffed, third club ruffed. That's six tricks, also, four to declarer, two to the defense. The hand would look like this:
------
9 5
Q 9 8 5 2
------
K 10 9
Q
3
K Q 8
K J 3
A 10 7
------
------
------
A J 7
6
Q 10 9
Now the defense has won only two tricks, but of course still has some good tickets left in trump, not to mention a diamond still coming. Declarer has just ruffed a club in dummy, and now leads a low heart, East splitting his honors, declarer winning with the A and he ruffs another club (even though the defense has no more) with the 9 of hearts. East can only overruff with the Q, cashes the A of diamonds and forces declarer with a diamond lead. The hand would look like this:
------
------
Q 9 8
------
K 10
Q
------
8
K
A
------
------
------
J
------
Q 10
Hm-m-mmm, that would be scanned awhile. The defense gets only 4 tricks this way, making 7 hearts a viable sac, beating the E-W pairs making 6 spades. The forcing attack is often the most formidable defense, but here that allows declarer to ruff his third club, and it would seem that that's the key play, allowing declarer 9 winners: He's going to win three spade forces, two clubs, the A and J of hearts