My first thought was that the hand should make . . . until I saw the devastation wreaked by the forcing game, which not a few defenders eschewed. And my third thought? . . . Well, lemme go through a few plays.
Four people went down, two of them down 2, all victims of the forcing game. Opening lead a heart, continued and ruffed, finesse to the king of spades, another heart. How many trump does the closed hand hold? He's down to two!, the same number as West holds . . . and West holds the king of diamonds back of the ace! So if declarer draws trump (and even if he guesses right on the J of spades), he won't have a heart stopper after knocking out the king of diamonds. The two people who went down 2 got crushed on this line and added to their woes by finessing the queen of spades into the king and then not finessing against the jack.
So now I went to the many who made 4 spades. Were they spared that forcing game? Just about all of 'em. Three Wests began with the king of diamonds! Opening lead! A nice gift to declarer. And not so incidentally, in every case, their partner had bid that heart suit. Goren had something to say on that, to the effect that your partner is going to remember the times your "imaginative" leads, eschewing your partner's suit, go sour far longer than the times you make just the right (expected) lead.
Of those who began with a heart and a heart force, more often than not East shifted when in with the king of spades! "What's the use? Declarer's going to ruff a heart anyway!" Yeah, right. These defenders should look at The Forcing Game. It can often be a devastating defense when the defense can cut declarer down to fewer trump than one defender, or the same number with a stopper to be knocked out. One declarer tried to squirm out of the juggernaut by running three club tricks after ruffing the second round of hearts, sluffing a heart in dummy. It may look to be a clever play except that it doesn't work. For now he could be forced in either clubs or hearts. Is that an adavantage? Oh, that would mean a sluff and a ruff! Well, what of it? There are actually two reasons why a sluff&ruff doesn't do declarer any good. One is that if he ruffs in dummy, he can't pick up either the J or K of trump, while ruffing in the long holding means that the lead is just another force after all, even though it looks like a sluff&ruff. And secondly, what is declarer going to sluff, anyway? The fourth round of diamonds? Which isn't a loser to begin with, nor is the third diamond.
Fourteen people made the contract, a couple with an overtrick (2 of the 3 who got the king of diamonds opening lead). About nine Easts, in with the K of spades, shifted from hearts after the first force. That made it awfully easy for declarer. He only needed to take the double hook in spades, and he was in. That leaves two declarers who were subjected to the forcing game and still made their contract. Here's what they did:
Ruff the second round of hearts, spade to the queen and king, ruff the heart return, 10 of spades led and holding, club to the king, diamond finesse losing, now the fourth round of hearts, ruffed with declarer's last trump in the closed hand! (Declarer has ruffed three times and led trump twice.) No problem. He now goes to dummy with a diamond and draws the last trump with the ace. Well done. Very well done. Hey, nobody ever said the forcing game is always going to work. But I'll warrant ye it would have led to a lot more defeated contracts if pursued by the 9 who shifted, not to mention the 3 who began with the king of diamonds.
Letting the closed hand get forced out of all trump, looking to dummy to control the suit, is more likely to be spotted on a 4-4 fit. But it sure as shootin' worked here. I confess that I thought this was going to be one for the defense, until I went through the play of those two declarers and found no one had made any mistakes. Those two declarers didn't panic, kept their eye on the ball, took the diamond hook before running themselves out of trump in the closed hand, and by golly, it looks to me as though the hand cannot be set on that line of play.
A Q 5
J 6 4
J 10 9 6 4
K 4