Just DO what comes naturally
It's all very well to bid to a makeable contract but then you also have to be able to make it.
Board 15 from Wednesday 29/11/2017 ... Dealer S NS Vul
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J3
842
Q653
AQ85At the Hutt club on Wednesday night there were some Wests in 4S but only one declarer managed to make what should be an easy contract, since the options in the play are very limited and all of them work. Whether West should be in 4S is another matter. It seems to me that in a match point game, 3S is a more sensible contract if EW bid accurately.
But we're not here to discuss the bidding this time, just the play, where the play of the trump suit is crucial. The easy way is to simply play your ace of spades and then lead another. That works. Another way is to play spades from dummy to start with and lead the queen. If covered, that will lose just one trump trick. Or, lead a low spade from dummy and when South plays low, insert the ten. Yes, that loses to North's jack but later South's king falls, so yet again only one trump loser.
The play in the other suits should be elementary: lead the nine of hearts towards the honours in the West hand and South will probably rise with the ace, seeing the singleton in dummy; there is no need for a diamond finesse, and only one way to play the clubs: lead from hand and put up the king if North does not go up with the ace. So, not difficult to make 4S yet only one EW pair bid and made 4S for a clear top.
I noted one interesting result: West was in 4S and went down on the lead of the FIVE OF CLUBS! That was an appalling opening lead and what it deserved was for declarer to rise with the king and perhaps even make FIVE (risky but Deep Finesse would have!) by then playing a diamond to the ace and finessing back to the jack and discarding the second losing club on the diamond king. But the declarer at the time did not follow a well known rule: if you have only ONE way to play a suit, you should not play it any differently just because a defender gives you an alternative, whether that is by design or through ignorance.
There is only one way to play clubs and that is to lead towards the king and rise with it. North's appalling opening lead should have made no difference to that play.
