Different Ways of going Down

K Q 5
K 8 6
A Q 9 4 3
6 3
J 10 7 4 A 9 8 2
J 10 5 2
K 8 7 5 2 10 6
K J A Q 10 9 7
6 3
A Q 9 7 4 3
J Contract: 4 hearts
8 5 4 2 Opening Lead: various

There are different ways of making 4 hearts here, depending on the defense (though my sympathies are with those who got a diamond opening lead), and different ways of going down, depending on the declarers. I'll save the pièce de résistance for the end, the most egregious play by a (qualified) advanced player. Now, looking at the declaring side's hands for the moment, we might have two spade winners if the ace is onsides, we might ruff two clubs, and we might get two diamond winners (one to sluff a club) on another line.
If the opening lead is a spade, the king captured by third hand, you know that line is out. Now you must start losing clubs in order to ruff two and avoid the diamond hook, if you can. If the defense shifts to a trump right away, you might lose a club just to see if they're going to continue, and if they do, you have no reasonable chance of making your contract outside of the diamond hook. And it's inexcusable not to take it when the hand is that clarified.
Well, lemme see what various declarers did. Here's one with a diamond opening lead who goes up with the ace and then takes two rounds of trump! Well, to be honest, that does leave the possibilty of two spade winners on an onsides ace, but that hope was dashed on the very next lead, when a spade to the queen was taken by East. Now a diamond was returned and ruffed. Declarer can ruff one of her four clubs, of course, but must give up three clubs in addition to the ace of spades. Declarer must start losing clubs at trick two. They can beat the contract at that point by leading hearts twice, but you don't know they will (and my opponents indeed didn't lead hearts as I lost two clubs, allowing enough ruffs).
Here's what should have been an easy one: Spade to the king and ace, A of clubs, Q to the K! ! ! ! They did her job for her! The defense took two club leads for her. She need only ruff two clubs, saving the king of hearts for the fourth round (though she'll soon learn that won't be altogether necessary). Or she can ruff one club and take the diamond hook. I mean, there's no way to go down now. Or isn't there? Well, here it was. A diamond through the A Q at trick 4, declarer went up. Okay. She's not dead yet. Then two -- that's two -- trump leads, and now she had finally queered all chance for her contract. I just don't understand it. You've got to look at those four clubs. Two of 'em must be lost, but what of it? You're not in slam. Given that you're losing a trick to the ace of spades, you must find a means for taking care of those next two clubs in the closed hand. Can they be ruffed? Can one be ruffed, the other on the ace of diamonds on a finesse? You must try one or the other. Putting on rose-colored glasses is not often a winning strategy.
Case 3: diamond lead, up with the ace, a lead I said I sympathized with. Declarer loses a club, ruffs a diamond lead, loses a club and would certainly seem to be on the right path. Spade to the queen and ace . . . oh, oh, oh, I see where he went wrong. A heart return that is allowed to ride to the king! No, no, nanette. Somebody has to be out of clubs on the fourth round, so you must save the king for that round of clubs. Here, as it turns out, a defender is out on the third round of clubs. But the good news is that that defender sits before the ruff, and so you're not harmed. But you still need that king of hearts. With the king gone, West ruffed the third round of clubs with the jack, and that's the fourth loser for declarer.
Case 4: This declarer got an opening diamond lead and let it ride to the jack! She would seem to be in clover with the 2-2 heart split, which she doesn't know about, but if she starts losing clubs, the opponents can't lead the suit more than twice, allowing one ruff under any circumstances. Well, lemme see what happened. After winning the first trick with the jack of diamonds, she took three rounds of trump. Three rounds of trump! The suit is splitting 2-2. Two rounds of trump would have been ill-advised, though she'd come out smelling like a rose on the 2-2 split (ill-advised, because on a 3-1 trump split, a defender might lead trump a third time). But she took that third round because she wanted to sluff a club on the ace of diamonds! Wait a minute. You're not a five-year-old child. You can sluff a club on the ace of diamonds later, can you not, after losing two rounds and ruffing one? It's called delayed gratification by sociologists and psychologists. You don't need to sluff that club so quickly. Just lose a few clubs, ruff the third round and sluff the fourth on the ace of diamonds.
Case 5: Here's an advanced (with qualification) player who went down in three hearts. Which you've gotta work at. A novice should lose no more than three clubs and the ace of spades. How can you lose another trick? Well, here's how: Opening lead a heart, a second round of hearts taken, the jack of diamonds was pushed through! Now this guy's on a path for 10 tricks, right? Wrong. This guy's on a path for 8 tricks. Here's how. After guaranteeing 10 tricks on his diamond hook, he too was in a hurry to get to that ace of diamonds, and so led a third round of trump to cash the ace of diamonds sluffing a spade. Sluffing a spade!
It's difficult to see how any bridge player with a few months of play behind him, let alone one who refers to himself as advanced, would think that gained anything. I have referred twice in recent days to low cards, not destined to win a trick but which are worth a trick, and a low spade is one of those cards. Now if a spade lead is captured first round, declarer has no access to a spade winner that was rightfully his. So that low spade was worth a trick. Meanwhile, those low clubs still number four! Instead of being open to two quick club losers, he opens himself to three by chewing up a heart that should have been used to ruff a club, and then to four by discarding a spade, not a club on the ace of diamonds!
Declarer now led the 9 of diamonds, sluffing his last spade as West won with his king and the defense cashed four club tricks. So this declarer avoided any spade losers -- rah! rah! -- but in exchange he didn't get a spade winner also and so lost four clubs and a diamond for down one in three.