Today’s deal concerning 6-1 fits is taken from the free Bridge Master feature at bridgebase.com. Why not cover up the East-West cards and tackle it yourself?
After the heart lead, you can see that you need to win four trump tricks in order to bring home your contract of four spades. Taking multiple ruffing finesses in diamonds seems impractical.
If trumps are 3-3, finessing the jack will sometimes gain an overtrick, but let us disregard that. A 3-3 split is not the problem here. Focusing instead on 4-2 breaks, you see that leading to the jack will only work when East holds honor-doubleton or K-Q-x-x. It is slightly better to play to the ace and then continue low, picking off honor-doubleton in either hand. The best line of all, though, is to finesse the eight on the first round. This handles honor-doubleton in either hand while allowing for the slight extra chance of K-Q-9-x onside.
A spade to the eight at trick two forces the queen, and West perseveres with two rounds of hearts. After ruffing the third, how should you proceed?
If you lay down the spade ace and then the spade jack to force out the king, the defense can force you to ruff again, reducing you to only one trump. If trumps are 4-2, then after drawing the last trump, you may find you have no entry to your long clubs.
Accordingly, it is safest to jettison dummy’s club ace, king and queen as you play the spades. One goes on the spade ace, another on the spade jack and a third when you cash the spade 10.