They bid well; you defend better

Anita Roddick was an English businesswoman best known for being the founder of The Body Shop, which was one of the first cosmetic firms to ban testing on animals. She said, "If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just."

In most pursuits, if your opponent plays well, you must play better to succeed. That applies in this deal, where North and South bid well, but East could defeat their contract with excellent defense.

What should East do when his partner leads the diamond king against four hearts?

North's four-diamond jump cue-bid was a splinter. It showed four-card heart support, the values for (at least) game and at most a singleton diamond. East took the opportunity to show his diamond support with a double. South, of course, had no thoughts of a slam and signed off in four hearts. (A pass by South here would have been mildly encouraging, expressing some slam interest, but a hand not strong enough to drive the auction above game.)

West leads the diamond king. East sees that there is no defensive club trick available. If his side has a trump trick, it isn't running away. But if there is no trump winner, the defenders will have to take three spade tricks immediately.

This should make it clear to East that he should overtake the diamond king with his ace and shift to a spade -- but to which one?

From J-x-x(-x) or Q-x-x(-x), lead low if you need two tricks; but lead high if you need three. East must lead the spade jack at trick two.