Four-Card Suits

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

Obviously a diamond lead would scuttle any hope of making this hopeless contract. And even without a diamond lead, it's going to take a first-round finesse of the 9 of hearts to do the trick, which I don't believe anyone chose to take. Still, there were three who made it. No, not on their own steam. Indeed, all three got a favor from the defense in regard to the heart suit.
The hand was played in both 6 clubs and 6 no, and you can see that it would play much the same way in either contract. There's no squeeze. East hangs onto a guard to the king of diamonds while West hangs onto that heart suit.
How did those three make it? One defender went up on a lead toward the K 9! As if maybe he'd lose his A of hearts? None of the Second Hand Low for this fellow. That's for squares, huh? Another defender, when the hand was played from the North hand, led a low heart, and of course, whatever third hand did, that 10 of hearts was pickled. And the third?
Well, here it is: Opening lead was the 10 of spades, willy-nilly won in dummy, king of hearts to the ace, a low spade return, the jack drawing the king, a club to the ace, back to the jack, back to the king as West discarded the 10 of hearts, now the queen of clubs -- whoa! Back up. West discarded the ten of hearts? Not a low heart, but the 10? As Casey Stengel used to say, You can look it up.
It's just inexplicable. The deuce would have rendered that four-card suit powerless as well as the 10, of course. But the 10? As if he doesn't want anyone to miss his discard? For what purpose?
Now, lemme just go over a few things that should have been apparent to West, in part to take my critique out of any suspicion of hindsight. One, he can count declarer for 6 club winners, 2 spade and the ace of diamonds, for the certain ones, plus at least one heart and probably two (on the lead of the king, which hardly seems likely if declarer is only setting up one trick). Surely he doesn't think declarer is going to play to that spade suit out to the fifth round! Further, West doesn't even hold the high spade. You only need one more trick! West should be prepared to discard all his spades. If declarer has the queen, he's got 12 tricks, and if he doesn't, West should be happy to turn control of the third round over to his partner.
One diamond can go also. Not both, because sometimes you want to avoid showing out and letting declarer know that a finesse won't work (though here it wouldn't help declarer). West had plenty of cards to spare aside from that 10 of hearts or any heart. So keep that four-card suit intact!