Smelling A Rat

Pages: Page 5 of 5

Dealer: North
Vuln: Game All
Scoring: IMPs
  1. spadeJ 9
  2. heartK 7 6 5
  3. diamondA Q J 5 4
  4. club3 2
  1. spadeK 3
  2. heartQ J 10 8
  3. diamond8 7 6 3
  4. clubK Q 10
club diamond heart spade NT
N 2 - - 3 -
S 1 - - 3 -
E - 2 2 - -
W - 2 1 - -
Green square in centre
  1. spade5 4
  2. heartA 9 3 2
  3. diamondK 10 9 2
  4. club7 6 5

Contract: 4spade
Declarer: South
Lead: heartQ
  1. spadeA Q 10 8 7 6 2
  2. heart4
  3. diamond—
  4. clubA J 9 8 4
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1diamond Pass 1spade
Pass 2diamond Pass 3club
Pass 3NT Pass 4spade
Pass Pass Pass
. . . now you get to remove both trumps from dummy before declarer can take a club ruff. He gets one discard on the heart king and another on the diamond ace, but still has two club losers plus the trump and the heart ace. As my correspondent friend notes, there is an interesting psychological point for declarer against good defenders,

Is declarer better to play heartK at trick 1, encouraging defenders to try and force him, or is he better to duck, causing East to smell a rat?
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