Make the right play.
Bridge Column for January 3, 2003, Harvey Bernstein
Neither side vulnerable.  North deals.
                              North
                              S: Q J 9 7 5 4      
                              H: Q J 2       
                              D: Void        
                              C: A Q 6 3 
            West                             East
            S: K 6 2                         S: A 8 3        
            H: K 5                           H: 4 3        
            D: K Q 10 9 2                    D: J 5 4 3           
            C: 10 8 7                        C: K 9 5 4     
                              South                         
                              S: 10   
                              H: A 10 9 8 7 6
                              D: A 8 7 6   
                              C: J 2      
          The Bidding:  
                  North    East    South    West                  
                   1S      Pass     2H      Pass
                   2S      Pass     3D      Pass
                   4H      Pass     Pass    Pass
     After an aggressive auction, West led the king of diamonds. 
Declarer pitched a club and won the ace.  At trick two, declarer
played the six of diamonds and trumped with the two of hearts.
     The queen of hearts was passed around to the king.  West
returned the five of hearts and what looks to be an ice cold
contract was defeated.
     During the postmortem, the declarer asked for help with the
play.  As is usually the case, the mistake was made early on.  If
declarer counts winners and losers, he will see that if he times
the play carefully, there will only be three potential losers, a
spade, a heart, and a club.
     At trick two, declarer should lead the jack of clubs.  This
loses to West.  It would be best for West to now cash the ace of
spades, lest that trick go away.  When declarer drops the ten,
West should switch to a trump.  
     Declarer must rise with the ace of hearts and trump a
diamond in the dummy.  A spade is trumped in the closed hand and
another diamond is trumped in dummy.  The ace of clubs is next,
followed by the queen, declarer discarding his last diamond.
     At this point, declarer can give up a trick to the king of
hearts and claim the balance, making four.
     The key to success on this hand is recognizing early on that
the defense has tricks to cash if declarer loses control of the
hand.  Once the trumps are gone from the dummy, the diamond suit
becomes a problem.  If the club finesse is going to work, it
won't be a problem, but if the king is offside, the trick must be
lost before trumps are played.
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon. 
fs