Give yourself that extra chance

I played bridge at the club Saturday with Brent. There was a nice crowd of 16 tables. On board 27, our opponents bid to 4♥ on these cards:

                ♠ K 8
                ♥ J 9 8 5
                ♦ A K 9 7 2
                ♣ 4 3
--
                ♠ A
                ♥ K Q 10 7 6 4 3
                ♦ 3
                ♣ A 10 8 7

South opened 1♥. West overcalled 2♣ and North-South bid to game in hearts. The opening lead was the ♣Q, which showed the king.

Declarer won the ♣A, cashed the ♠A, then led a diamond to the ace. She then cashed the ♦K, discarding a club. On the play of the first two diamonds, West followed with the ♦Q 10. Declarer continued by playing the ♠ K and discarded another club.

At trick six, declarer led a trump and East won the ♥A as West followed with the 2. East exited with a low diamond, declarer ruffed and West discarded a club. Declarer now conceded a club to make five and a score of 450.

Here are all four hands (low spots approximate where not important):

                ♠ K 8
                ♥ J 9 8 5
                ♦ A K 9 7 2
                ♣ 4 3
♠ J 10 4 3                     ♠ Q 9 7 6 5 2
♥ 2                            ♥ A
♦ Q 10                         ♦ J 8 6 5 4
♣ K Q J 9 6 5                  ♣ 2
                ♠ A
                ♥ K Q 10 7 6 4 3
                ♦ 3
                ♣ A 10 8 7

When East returned a low diamond, Declarer had to guess whether West had ♦Q J 10, or Q 10 doubleton. If West had three, her line (ruffing) would have worked. The ♦9 would be good and she had a trump entry to dummy.

Do you see where declarer went wrong? After cashing the high cards in dummy, she can ruff a diamond. When she sees West show out, she can lead a heart. This works when East has to win and has no more clubs or hearts (as in the actual case). East has to give a ruff-and-sluff or lead away from his ♦J. By playing this way, declarer avoids a nasty guess in the diamond suit. This line of play way doesn't give up any legitimate chance, and, anytime she can score the second overtrick, she will.

Yes, most of the time West will have the trump ace and will cash a club when he gets in. Some of the time, East will have the trump ace and have a club to return. But once in a while, the cards will be distributed as shown and that extra chance works out. Would you have visualized it?

Making 4♦ with one overtrick was a score of 3.5 on a top of 12. Making 480 would have been worth 7. Some East-West pairs sacrificed, and were set 500 (I'm not sure, but maybe they were in 5♠). In fact, one East-West pair was set 1100!