Not Terribly Tricky


6 3 2
J 5 3
K 8 6 4 2
Q 10
8 7 9 5 4
A Q 4 9 8 2
5 Q 10 7 3
K J 7 6 5 4 3 A 8 2
A K Q J 10
K 10 7 6
A J 9 Opening lead: 5 of diamonds, 5 of clubs,
9 Contract: 4 spades

Almost everyone who made this hand got a singleton diamond lead into the closed hand's tenace, which made the contract a cakewalk -- for most declarers. Still, I have a couple here who didn't make it on that lead:
The first declarer smartly drew trump in three rounds, cashed the ace of diamonds (East had played the 3 on the opening lead) and then the jack went to the king. No problem so far. Now came the eight of diamonds, for no known reason, on which declarer sluffed the six of hearts! A loser on a loser? Not on your life. That was a winner on a loser. And that's not such a good idea. The fourth round of hearts is a winning round. Oh, I'll grant it probably won't be the actual six that wins the trick, but that's academic. You don't have a fourth round of hearts if you sluff the 6, so you're substantially sluffing a winner there.
Declarer sets up a 5th diamond which he doesn't have a ghost of a chace to get to and which costs him the fourth round of hearts. Oh! He does have a ghost of a chance of reaching dummy, yes with the jack of hearts. Well, yes, but by then you've established the heart suit and won't have anything to sluff on the 5th diamond.
You've got to pursue your own star. Diamonds might have split 3-2 but they didn't. When declarer saw that on the second round of diamonds, he would have done well to shift to hearts right there, yes, leading away from the king toward the jack. With three of the top five hearts, you've got a heart winner coming for certain (with 2 trump left and being on lead) and might have a second one coming on a 3-3 break which is there and on a few other distributions, such as A Q tight on your left. There isn't any reason to pursue diamonds when you learn they're 4-1. You've got to go for your suit, develop your winners.
The second declarer was, um-m-mm, even more inept. East went up with the queen on the opening lead. Declarer now took three straight spade leads, cashed the jack of diamonds -- and finessed the 9 of diamonds into the 10! I just don't understand it. You've no certain entry to dummy and the one possible entry requires losing two heart tricks first at which time you'll be down if those guys cash a club, and you won't be able to sluff any losers on the king of diamonds and long diamond anyway!

I went back to the record at this point and found: of the 30 who made the contract, 29 got a diamond opening lead. The one who got a club, the first half of the most threatening defense, got a shift at trick two to a heart! Can't complain about that. You've got to knock out two heart honors and the defenders knock out one for you without costing you an honor. Now if you can escape a ruff in hearts, you've got two heart winners whatever the distribution.
Of the four who went down one, three got a diamond opening lead! I hadn't remembered there was a third. Then there were three with multiple undertricks, a ladder of minus two, minus three and minus four. None got a diamond lead, but the last named, down four was a name I've seen often near the top of the ranking on tournaments! I'm not sure if I had the right name, but when I went to look at his stats, I found he's an expert! Or so he tells us! A rather simple hand which most are making (though it is true that he didn't get a diamond lead), and only two others had multiple undertricks, and none others were down 4, this expert did it. Since you can't revoke in OKBridge and thus can't possibly miss five spade winners, one would think that even an expert would be able to pull in two diamond tricks for down three. But it wasn't to be. His six tricks were 5 trump and the ace of diamonds. He, like some others, was too sophisticated for a diamond hook. And he never did get his king.
To make this not so esoteric contract, you get out trump (though not so quickly with a club lead and continuation, which I'll get to in a minute), save the king of diamonds for the diamond hook and so lead low to your jack of hearts. You've got to knock out two heart honors. How can anyone not see that? In addition to a 3-3 split and A Q tight on your left, low to the jack works also if your LHO has a queen doubleton.
Here's the third person going down one on a diamond lead: won with the jack, three rounds of trump, cash the ace, 9 to the king, ruff a diamond. Ruff a diamond! You've got to knock out two heart honors and you have two trump left, and you want to cut yourself down to one trump? It makes no sense. You've got five trump winners and three in diamonds, which you learn on the second round of the suit can't be more than three. No visible winners in clubs. Three of the top five hearts. How can anyone not attack the heart suit there?
Here's the one who went down with a club opening lead. No, it wasn't an immediate continuation that killed him. The defense detoured to a heart lead before reverting to clubs, and that's all you need. Now you can draw trump, knock out the last heart honor, ruff a club continuation, cash your hearts and take the diamond hook. Oh, this one went down at trick 13. Everything done right with the hearts. Then a diamond to the king, and a diamond back to the ace. To the ace.
About a month ago, I gave a hand where there was little excuse for taking a finesse on the opening lead. The defense could have cashed two diamond tricks, but didn't. Declarer had hearts on which to sluff the diamond losers and complete control of trump. Bad choice to take the finesse. But since that time, I must have had ten hands that relied on taking a simple finesse and which declarers bungled by declining to take that finesse. It's not only that the odds are with you. You've got a partner you want to please (presumably). If the finesse is off, you say you did your best. And it is off for others. You don't want your partner to watch you kick away a fine, makable contract because you feel too good for a finesse.
With a club lead and continuation, the hand definitely takes on a different coloration. You can't afford to lead out trump. You'd be left with one trump and two heart honors to knock out. And that's not a wise idea. You must attack the heart honors right away. If the defense can get a ruff by your heart leads, there again, you're going to be able to point out your rationale to your partner, which has to be better than marching on in a suicidal line. So at trick three, lead low to your jack of hearts. If the opponents persist in clubs, you can ruff in dummy, sluffing either a diamond, avoiding the finesse, or a heart and dependency on a favorable break there.
And if the opponents shift, you won't mind that either. In any event, you can now get out the trump, knock out the last heart honor, ruff another club, go for your diamond hook and claim.
Here's the declarer who went down two: club lead and continuation, ruffed. Three rounds of trump! You can see that you're going to be vulnerable to a continued club attack on that line. Nor will the diamonds bail you out. You can take the finesse in only one direction, and you won't have an entry to the long diamonds if the finesse works and the suit splits 3-2. You must hit the hearts right away on the club force.
This declarer actually got the diamond hook right, which one above didn't. But it didn't help him a whole lot. He now led the king of hearts, taken by the ace, ruffed the club return, and now on a heart continuation, West took it and cashed two more club winners for down two. Cashing out three rounds of trump, leaving yourself with one trump when you must knock out two heart honors is driving off a cliff to perdition.