Partner doesn't have it

I went looking for perfecto bids and went past our last positive score.  At matchpoints, of course, this is a disastrous and we could not recover from three zeros.

Holding:

N

Me

♠

xxx

♥

AKxxx

♦

Kxx

♣

Qx

I opened 1H and this was the auction:

W

West

N

Me

E

East

S

South

—

1♥

Pass

1♠

Pass

1NT

2♣

Pass

Pass

Dbl

Pass

2♦

All Pass

That reopening double put partner in an uncomfortable position. His hand was 4-1-4-4 with 8 points i.e. he held neither 2 hearts nor 5 spades and his clubs were 9 high, so he didn't think he could pass 2C.  1NT and defending 2C were our last positive scores. Given that the auction looks like a misfit, I ought to have passed.

Here was another poor decision. I held:

N

North

♠

87

♥

K10875

♦

Qxx

♣

KQ10

I passed and the auction was:

W

West

N

Me

E

East

S

South

—

Pass

2♥

2♠

Pass

2NT

Pass

3♣

Pass

3NT

All Pass

Partner had bid 2S essentially to play since I had passed originally. Unfortunately, I didn't get the memo.  I was so sure that his hand was strong that I drove to game opposite the 16 or so points I imagined him having.

The third zero of the night came about on this deal.  I held:

N

North

♠

Axx

♥

9xxxx

♦

x

♣

Axxx

The auction was:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

—

1NT¹

2♥²

Pass

4♥

All Pass

(1) 15-17

(2) Natural, with extra shape

4H went down 1. The rest of the field was in 3S their way, going down 1.

As the bridge maxim goes "if you expect partner to have a card for your bid, he doesn't have it."  The thing  common to all my bids was expecting partner to have something -- shape in the first, points in the second and tenaces in the third -- that he didn't have.  There were hints in each of the deals that pointed me to this, if I had bothered to look. In the first hand, partner passed over 2C, denying the ability to bid 2H or 2S. In the second, I had passed the first time, so partner is telling me something by retreating from 2NT.  In the third hand, I need too many nice things to happen to make 4H and I do have two defensive tricks.  So, 3H is probably enough.