Housekeeping -- Both Ways

Q J 7
A Q 9
K 6
10 8 7 4 2
6 5 2 K 10 9 8
J 8 7 4 10 6 3 2
Q 10 9 5 A 7 4
J 6 9 5
A 4 3
K 5
J 8 3 2 Vul: Both
A K Q 3 Contract: 3 NT

Housekeeping means all the matters you just attend to before cashing out: knocking out aces and kings, taking the finesses you deem necessary, getting out the trump, or conversely, shorting a suit in dummy so as to ruff before drawing trump, maybe losing a trick or two to rectify the count for a squeeze and so on. This you do as long as you're safe and in control. But this works both ways, and when you're not safe losing the lead, then it's probably time to cash out, even at times knowing it'll be down one or down two. Here is a hand that illustrates a failure both ways: One declarer failed to cash out for 10 tricks when losing the lead posed a danger, while another failed to take a spade hook for his 10th trick when he was completely safe.
Low diamond lead, which rides to the 8. Declarer now ran his clubs, sluffing a spade, took two rounds of hearts and led the king of diamonds! I have no idea why one would lead that card instead of the queen of spades, but that alone shouldn't have hurt him, that is, shouldn't have led to the defeat of the contract. On the run of the clubs, both defenders sluffed three spades. The hand looked like this before West cashed his last diamond:
Q J
A
------
------
------ K
J 8 10 6
Q ------
------ ------
A 4
------
J
------
Declarer needed only to retain the ace of hearts, and he still would have had a 10th trick, but he continued his strange ways and sluffed the ace of hearts! East pitched his K of spades and the defense now took two heart tricks to defeat the contract.
Diamonds are, of course, declarer's weakest suit. You don't want to attack diamonds when you can cash out ten tricks, or, if you'd like to gamble a bit, take the spade hook for an 11th.
It looks to me as though there's no way the defense can take more than 3 diamond tricks (from declarer's viewpoint) if West wins a spade hook. If West can hit his partner with the ace for a lead through the jack, then the suit must be splitting 4-3 and the defense can take only 4 tricks (3 diamonds and the spade, i.e., if the finesse loses). When clubs don't split badly, declarer clearly has 10 top tricks. Do you want to risk that 10th trick for an 11th? Let's just say one can respect either decision. But throwing away a sure 10th trick with a play for an 11th to wind up with 8 isn't quite so easy to respect.
What should declarer have done? After winning with the 8 of diamonds, cash one round of clubs to see if they split badly. They don't, so you can run ten top tricks (5 clubs, 3 hearts a diamond and a spade) or take the spade hook for 11. The hand is that simple. Don't mess with hearts yet. You need that communication, but can't cash out the suit unless you're cashing out everything.
Conversely, here's a declarer who got the opening lead of a heart to the king! There is no diamond holding that allows the defense more than two quick diamond tricks. Well, I'd wanna test clubs first, but finding they're not 4-0, meaning you can run five of 'em, even on a losing spade hook, you've got 10 top tricks. The spade hook is part of this declarer's housekeeping. If it's off, he still gets two spade winners. He can take it in complete safety and should before cashing out.
The other declarer got a diamond opening lead, so the spade hook would be a gamble for 11 tricks at the risk of winding up with only 9. Not part of housekeeping. A simple gamble that declarer might want to take, might not want to. Hearts are run, sluffing a spade, the queen of spades lead is ducked by East, so declarer goes up! -- (another reason for not covering the first of equal honors). Running hearts, uncovering the high heart for the defense, was a serious mistake. Now the spade hook doesn't look so alluring since a losing finesse might lead to a defeated contract. Don't cash top winners without good reason until your housekeeping is done. There will be reasons for playing a top winner or two before finishing your housekeeping. You might want to shift the lead to the other hand, or test the distribution of a suit (as in cashing one round of clubs early here) and others. But without a positive reason for cashing that top card, you'd do better to finish your housekeeping chores. All of 'em. The spade hook was declarer's last housekeeping chore to perform, when he would have been perfectly safe if losing, before cashing out. And it would have worked for a tenth winner. With a heart opening lead, declarer doesn't get the diamond winner those who got a diamond lead got. Nor can he develop it himself. Well, I suppose he could, but he has to lose three diamond tricks in the process, and he's no better off than taking a simple spade hook for a 10th winner. But in exchange for that absence of a diamond winner, he has an absolutely safe spade hook for a 10th winner, whether the finesse is on or off. In running hearts, however, uncovering the high one for the defense, the spade hook isn't quite so alluring, unsettling declarer when the Q isn't covered, so that he brings himself to a measly below average 9 tricks.