CONTRACT BRIDGEBy Steve BeckerDESPERATE CIRCUMSTANCESEast dealer.East-West vulnerable.NORTH[S]	8 7 6[H]	A Q 10[D]	J 9 8 2[C]	A 8 7WEST	[S]	--	[H]	J 8 6 4	[D]	A K 6 5	[C]	K J 10 9 5	EAST[S]	K 5 4 3 2[H]	7 3 2[D]	7 4[C]	6 3 2SOUTH[S]	A Q J 10 9[H]	K 9 5[D]	Q 10 3[C]	Q 4The bidding:East   South   West   NorthPass   1 [S]   Dble   RedblePass   Pass    2 [C]  PassPass   2 [S]   Pass   3 [S]Pass   4 [S]Opening lead -- king of diamonds.Assume you're declarer in four spades and West leads the K-A and another diamond. East ruffs and returns a club, on which you hopefully play the queen, but West covers with the king, and you win with dummy's ace.You lead a trump and finesse the queen, West discarding a club. Learning that East started with five trumps is enlightening, but while it solves the problem of avoiding a trump loser, it does not solve the problem of avoiding a club loser.Thus, if you next crossed to the queen of hearts to take a second trump finesse, then led a heart to the ace and took another trump finesse, you'd pick up East's king, but you'd still have to lose a club and go down one.It can't be right to settle for such an outcome without trying to do something about it. So you start looking for a line of play that offers you a chance for the contract.The solution is not all that hard to find. At trick six, you lead a low heart and finesse dummy's ten! When the finesse succeeds, you are well on the way to victory.You take a second trump finesse, lead a heart to the queen and take a third trump finesse. The ace of trumps draws East's king, after which you lead the king of hearts to the ace and deposit your club loser on dummy's jack of diamonds.It is true that you must take what appears to be a foolish first-round heart finesse to make the contract, but you can easily justify that play by saying that desperate circumstances require desperate measures.(c) 2013 King Features Synd., Inc.