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The solution to this hand is to finesse West for the queen of trump. It's close whether you should lay down the ace and then finesse or take a first-round finesse! The first round finesse is better when West holds all four trump, but if it loses to the queen and there's a diamond ruff available for one of the defenders, this extreme safety play backfires.

At the table, declarer cashed the ace and king of spades and then attacked diamonds. West won and shifted to a club, so declarer was down one. Finessing the queen of trump into the safe East hand cannot lose once the ace is cashed, since East cannot profitably lead a club, and you have time to set up the diamond suit for discards.

From East's point of view, he might have switched to a club at trick two, hoping to set up a club trick. But he didn't know that the second heart wasn't cashing. In fact, he made a neat play by leading a low heart back, hoping his partner would win the jack and shift to clubs. As it was, the best defense would have been for East to return a diamond at trick two. West wins and must return a club. Now declarer needs to guess the trump suit to make the contract.

Have a nice weekend!