Dance of the Red Suits (part one)

This one of my favorite hands for sheer interest, largely because it works as a touch-and-go hand, requiring careful play by all hands whether played by one pair in 5 hearts or the other in 5 diamonds. Four hearts would be a cakewalk. But if five diamonds, whether makable or down one, would be a good bid over four hearts, one has to believe that there would be pairs in 5 hearts. And even if there weren't, the matchpoint player would want to be on the lookout for that overtrick.

A 10 7 3
J 6 3
J 5
A K Q 2
Q K J 9 8 4 2
9 8 5 4 ------
K 10 9 7 4 3 2 A Q 8
6 J 9 5 4
6 5Contract: 5 hearts
A K Q 10 7 2
6 Opening lead: 6 of clubs
10 8 7 3

Can 5 be made with best play all around? Well, one thing is certain: declarer must draw four rounds of trump after that opening lead. If he lets go before that task is completed, it would be an easy matter for the defense to pick up a spade, on which West's club is discarded, followed by a ruff and the ace of diamonds.
So declarer draws four rounds of trump, sluffing a diamond in dummy. And East? Well, he can't spare any clubs, obviously. He can spare two spades and get to the same length as dummy's holding, but no more or he gives up a trick. So his other two discards have to be diamonds.
But look what happens when he gets down to three spades, four clubs and the ace of diamonds. He's thrown in on a diamond lead. He cannot lead from the jack of clubs without losing a trick, and after cashing his king of spades, a spade lead would set up the 10 for a club discard and an 11th trick.
But wait a minute! There's no law that says he has to keep the ace of diamonds, is there? East gets off the hook by discarding that card and the queen, lest his partner duck a lead to let his partner take it. So West is on lead when declarer loses that diamond trick. As the only one with diamonds, and given that declarer has trump in only one hand, such a lead won't mean a sluff and ruff, so West sees that suit as a safe lead.
Declarer sluffs a club from dummy and . . . East is now squeezed! The hand would look like this before West's diamond lead:

10 7 3
------
------
A K Q 2
------ K J 9
------ ------
10 9 7 4 3 2 ------
6 J 9 5 4
6
7 2
------
10 8 7 3


On the "safe" diamond lead, the deuce of clubs is discarded from dummy and East has no good play. A club discard would obviously allow declarer a fourth club trick, while a spade discard would allow declarer to lose a spade, regain the lead, go to dummy with a club, ruff out East's last spade, then claim a good dummy.
An interesting two-tiered squeeze. First East is squeezed out of a safe exit card if he's not careful. And if he is careful, his partner's going to squeeze him if he's not careful. For yes, West does have a safe lead, which would be a club. Declarer wins and leads a spade. Only now with declarer initiating the second round of that suit, East isn't embarrassed and can lead the third round without costing a trick, and declarer must eventually lose a club trick.
But wait a minute. Why can't declarer take exactly one round of clubs and then lead a diamond? Of course, there's no reason why he cannot, which would mean that West has no safe exit if his partner jettisons the A Q of diamonds and East has no safe exit if he doesn't.
A fantastic hand, so delicately balanced, so fraught with danger -- and opportunity -- at every turn. You couldn't devise a hand like that. In part 2, I'll give the hand rotated 90 degrees, played in diamonds in this Dance of the Red Suits.