Four Small Again

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

Four small in the master hand (i.e., the hand you're counting losers from). Sometimes the hand will indeed shape up better played from dummy, in which case you don't concern yourself with the last two of the four small. But not here. I took up that situation recently here and some time ago here. The doubletons are all different, but what happens on the first two rounds is fixed by the deal and not part of the discussion. It's declarer's handling of the 3rd and 4th rounds that becomes important. They must be accounted for and putting off thinking about them is not the solution.
Five people bid slam here, 3 in no trump where they had no chance. I love no trump slams as well as anyone, but on a balanced fit, unless you're looking at a slew of high cards, the chances are high that you'll do better in the trump contract. Anyway, the other two were in 6 clubs, one making, the other not. It looks to me as though a diamond lead would queer the slam. The combination of West's shortage in diamonds and a twice-guarded 10 of trump would seem to bedevil declarer. Declarer can run three hearts, sluffing the diamond loser, but West's holding will make re-entries (for getting spade ruffs) difficult. But on a heart lead, 6 clubs would seem to be a cakewalk if only declarer will immediately face the holding of 4 small spades.
No one likes to go down by trick 3 in a slam, but it seems apparent that there's only one way to play this hand. The ace of spades has to be onsides, and since the heart differential must be used to sluff a diamond, a card you can't ruff, you must then cash the king of spades and maneuver an exiguous supply of entries to ruff out the next two rounds. How about a shift to diamonds after winning the ace of spades. Too late. Win with the A, go to the king of spades, heart to the queen, ruff a spade low, cash the king of hearts, sluffing a diamond, ruff a diamond low, ruff a spade and bingo. The closed hand has only trump left and declarer can easily draw the opponents' trump. No sweat.
What did declarer do? Well, like all of 'em, it would seem, he exhausted dummy of too many trump to make his contract. The heart lead was properly taken with the ace, allowing declarer the flexibility of winning the next round in either hand, three rounds of trump, two more heart leads sluffing a diamond, and now a diamond to the ace, spade to the king (West ducking), diamond ruffed, spade to the East's jack, West ducking again, spade ruffed in dummy, drawing the ace, diamond ruffed in the closed hand and now the setting trick, that fourth spade to the queen.
Well, did the other declarer march smartly to his 12 tricks? Not exactly. After winning the same opening lead with the ace, this declarer took only two rounds of trump before leading a spade toward the king. West wins, and it seems to me that a trump lead would have sealed declarer's fate right there since then he could ruff only one spade. However, West now led a diamond, and it looks to me as though that should have been equally devastating, but . . . ooooh, what a way to make the hand.
I didn't see how he could make it and thought something was wrong with the claim with the record stopping after trick 11 with two cards showing. But the claim was legit. I was watching the wrong hand! Here's what happened: The diamond lead referred to from West was the 10, covered in turn by the queen, king and ace. Now declarer took two more heart leads, sluffing the 8 of diamonds, ruffed the four of diamonds low, East playing the jack, spade to the king, ruffed a diamond with the jack, and now the low club to dummy. And can you see dummy?
Dummy now holds the Q & 9 of clubs and the high diamond! The goat here is East who wasn't watching the fall of that suit. Since declarer had sluffed the 8 of diamonds, East held the J 7 5 double tenace over the 9 6 4! He only had to cover whatever diamond declarer led from dummy to get the setting trick at trick 13. But that play of the diamond jack allowed declarer to draw West's last trump with the Q and claim with a high dummy!
This declarer in essence played a dummy reversal, wherein he didn't have to concern himself with spades beyond the second round, but which was made feasible only by East's profligate play of the J of diamonds. Of dummy's four diamonds, one went on the ace, one was ruffed low, one ruffed high, and the fourth was high! Expensive for the defense? Well, lemme see. Minus 10.52 vs plus 9.48 for exactly 20 IMP's tossed away. I'd call that expensive.