The Understandable and not so Understandable

9 3
9 6 4 3
A 9 6
Q 8 6 4
A 10 7 5 4 2
K Q 2 5
10 5 2 Q J 7 3
A J 9 5 3 K 10 7 2
K Q J 8 6
A J 10 8 7
K 8 4 Vul: N-S
------ Opening lead: A of clubs

EastSouthWestNorth
Pass 1 2 Pass
3 * 3 Pass 4
5 5 Dbl All pass
* Alerted

EastSouthWestNorth
Pass 1 2 Pass
3 3 Dbl All pass

The forcing game proved disastrous to two declarers here, each being held to 8 tricks on slightly different lines of play. The 5 heart declarer took the opening lead, laid down the A of hearts and continued the suit. West returned the favor by cashing out the third round and forcing declarer a second time with a club lead. How many trump does declarer have left now in the closed hand? Ah, you've got it, huh! He's got none, has no protection in clubs and the A of spades still has to be knocked out! Declarer proceeded to do just that, whereupon the defense took two club tricks before resorting to a diamond. Declarer took it in the closed hand, sluffed a diamond in dummy, where he still has a trump, of course, and claimed. Off three, losing two clubs, two hearts and a spade.
The second declarer ruffed the opening club lead, went to the ace of diamonds in dummy and finessed a trump into the Q. West forced him again with a club, cutting him down to two trump, the same number West has, of course. Declarer now cashed the ace of hearts and knocked out the king of spades. If only he'd reversed those leads! West would have gotten the lead while holding K low in hearts -- and would (presumably) have little stomach for leading that suit. West would probably have continued with a third club force. Declarer would cash the A of hearts, hoping for a 2-2 split, we might suppose, and not getting it, would know West had the last trump. But his spades would be established. He would now cash his top spades, sluffing a club on the third round, which is dummy's last club. West can ruff in whenever he likes. It's now academic. Declarer can withstand a fourth club lead, ruffing in dummy, come to the closed hand with the K of diamonds, lead another spade, sluffing a diamond and claim a good dummy. Losing only three tricks: two hearts and a spade.
Instead, West took the spade lead and cashed his K of hearts and -- well, you know what happened, don't you? The defense cashed two club tricks for the same number of tricks as the defense against 5 hearts got.
One has far more sympathy for the 5 heart bidder, than for his confrere. The opponents put him to a difficult choice (in the bidding), he made the wrong one, if you will, but they're all a little easier to bid when you know what the hand makes. It wasn't a totally wrongheaded decision, merely wrong for the layout of the cards. You might note that declarer could have made on a 2-2 heart split, and he played for it, following an old bridge adage that if the cards have to be such-and-such for you to make you bid, you assume they are and play accordingly. He could have played for down one, which I'll get to in a minute, but he bid over an obvious sac, and once his decision had been made, well you don't play to sac over a sac, do you?
The three heart bidder, however, gets no sympathy from this quarter. That double of three hearts was a pure gift, which he proceeded to throw away. He doesn't need to bank on a 2-2 heart split. Rather he needs to note that he can well afford to lose to the A of spades and three trump, if that should be the case. So his first level of attack should be the K of spades to knock out the ace. He wants to do that first, because now he's in control of the number of times hearts are led, which is once, if he doesn't take the finesse, twice if he does.
West presumably would force declarer a second time, and now declarer can bang down the ace of trump. [I'm speaking here as though declarer doesn't go to dummy to take the heart finesse. There's really no substantial difference whether he does or doesn't, provided declarer knocks out the A of spades while he still has the A of hearts.] When everbody follows, the worst that can happen is that he loses to two trump -- for an overtrick. Yes, on a 2-2 split he could be making two overtricks, but you don't need overtricks on a doubled partial, or more specifically, you don't need a second overtrick when you've got one. That's gotta be a top board if declarer will simply knock out the A of spades early, well, at trick two, perhaps, or after the second club force (following the finesse into the Q of hearts). He would then cash the ace of hearts, followed by running his winners, sluffing a club in dummy on a spade (third round) and a diamond on the fourth (with his K of diamonds entry).
Indeed, far from being a victim of the forcing game, that's exactly what declarer would do to West! i.e., force that defender to play out his top trump on spade leads (or save 'em for the last two tricks if that's his shtik). After the second club force, coming when the A of spades is knocked out, declarer cashes the A of trump. Both declarer and West have two trump at that point, and of course, West has the boss trump. But what of it? Declarer's on lead and that makes all the difference. He runs spades, sluffing first club in dummy, and West can ruff in when he chooses. When he does so, now he's got one less trump than declarer, and a club force cuts declarer down to the same number, but again declarer's on lead. On another spade, he sluffs a diamond. There's no problem. Or shouldn't have been.
Above I said, "If only declarer had reversed the cashing of the A of hearts and knocking out the A of spades." (Declarer had taken a heart finesse into the Q and ruffed a second club lead.) At that point, i.e., on that line of attack, after knocking out the A of spades and accepting a third club lead from West, that defender has two trump and declarer one. He has ruffed clubs three times now (and led trump once). At first thought, it might seem hopeless. But wait a minute. Declarer cashes his ace of trump in the hope that they were 2-2, finds West still has one, but did you notice something? Dummy has only one club left! The hand would look like this just before the third club force:
9
9 6 4
9 6
Q 8
10 7 5 4
K 2 ------
10 5 Q J 7
9 5 3 K 10
Q J 8 6
A J
K 8
------

This is with taking the heart finesse at trick three by way of using the A of diamonds. West can't very well lead hearts at this point, so he forces declarer one more time in clubs. Declarer ruffs and cashes the A of hearts, and the hand looks like this:
9
9 6
9 6
Q
10 7 5 4
K ------
10 5 Q J
9 3 K
Q J 8 6
------
K 8
------

West has the top trump, but declarer is now in the catbird seat with spades established. The only thing he doesn't know is whether that 10 of spades is going to fall, but he learns about that very soon. He cashes the Q of spades and then the J, sluffing the last club in dummy. And West? If he ruffs the third round of spades, declarer sluffs the last club and if he doesn't choose to play his last trump, declarer still sluffs dummy's last club -- and leads a fourth round, sluffing a diamond, regardless of what West does. West might choose to force declarer once more in clubs, only now in dummy. Declarer ruffs, comes to the K of diamonds and on one more spade lead, sluffs dummy's last diamond.
There is no substantial difference if declarer doesn't go to the A of diamonds to take a heart finesse. If he knocks out the A of spades at trick two, regains the lead on a club force and simply cashes the A of hearts, the hand would look like this:
9
9 6 4
A 9 6
Q 8
10 7 5 4
K Q ------
10 5 2 Q J 7 3
9 5 3 K 10
Q J 8 6
J 10
K 8 4
------

And it should be obvious that with spades established and that ol' 10 falling, declarer can simply lead spades until West ruffs in (as declarer sluffs a club in dummy), ruff a third-round club lead, which cuts him down to one trump, the same as West, but with declarer on lead. Dummy would have no more clubs (from this point, one goes on the third round of spades, one on a third-round force from West). Another spade lead allows declarer to sluff a diamond, allowing him to ruff a diamond loser in dummy (eventually, depending on what West does). Making four. Which ain't half bad when you're doubled in 3.
You must note that if the forcing game can be disastrous, declarer might well be able to counter it in certain circumstances by not allowing it. Here declarer can't avoid three forces, one on opening lead, another on finessing into the Q, another on knocking out the A of spades. But he started with two more than West and could have weathered the attack if he'd simply knocked out the A of spades, cashed the A of trump after the third force and started cashing out winners. Please remember that dummy has one more trump than West. Declarer's in control now. By taking one finesse in hearts and then cashing the A before knocking out the A of spades, declarer put West in control.
There might seem to be a contradiction of sorts here. This was placed under "Defense" and yet I'm spending half my time or more delineating how declarer could have counteracted the forcing game. And yet if the forcing game discombobulated declarer, that's evidence of how effective it can be. I'm still looking for a "pure" play, where the forcing game beats the contract, it's the only way to beat the contract and declarer could do nothing about it.