I sat West in this deal from an online game and chose to lead the diamond two (third and fifth) against four spades. Declarer won with the king and led a spade to the nine, guarding against a 4-0 trump split. I took that with the queen and shifted to a heart, which partner won with the king and returned a diamond to declarer’s ace. South now laid down the spade ace, seeing the bad split. How would you continue in declarer’s shoes?
In the event, declarer saw no alternative to the club finesse and promptly took it, losing to my partner’s king. A second trump trick led to the defeat of the contract. However, at this point in the deal, there was no need to risk the club finesse. The contract was all but secure no matter where the club king was. It would have been best to cash a third diamond after taking the spade ace, and then to cash the heart winners to eliminate that suit as well. Thus, East is stripped of safe exits in those suits. Now declarer can put East on lead with a trump, forcing him either to return a club around to dummy’s tenace, or to gift a ruff-and-discard, whereupon South discards his club from hand and ruffs in dummy.
If I had led or shifted to a club, declarer could have played low from dummy and subsequently gotten rid of his hearts from hand on the top clubs. However, after a heart lead, declarer would have had a slightly harder task. He would have needed to strip away the red suits after cashing the spade ace, after which he could have exited with a spade for the endplay.