South is playing in 6 Hearts after East opened the bidding with one Club and gets an opening lead of the 10 of Clubs. It should be obvious that with a potential Spade loser, declarer should look at the Diamond suit as a place to shed Spades. If Diamonds break 3-3, then declarer could set them up to get 2 discards for his losing Spades. But finding that distribution is a poor percentage play and, as you can see, that is not going to happen in this hand. So what should declarer do?
Well, the first thing declarer must not do is win the opening lead with the Ace of Clubs. Doing this would force him to make what could be a premature discard. So he ruffs the opening lead and examines prospects with the Diamond suit and realizes that playing for a 3-3 distribution may not be the best chance for success. Since East opened the bidding, he’s likely to hold the Diamond Ace. Therefore, the best play could be to put a “FORK” in him; that is a “Morton’s Fork” coup.
A tax collector, Cardinal Morton, believed if a person lived well he could afford to pay taxes and if he lived poorly he was obviously saving his money and therefore could also afford to pay taxes. Either way, you were caught on Morton’s Fork and had to pay up.
Therefore after declarer drew trumps, ending up in the dummy, he led a small Diamond and East was caught on the “FORK.” If he won with the Ace, declarer would get to discard two Spades on the Diamond Queen and Club Ace. If he played small, declarer would win his King and then go to dummy to discard his last Diamond on the Club Ace. He would then have just one Spade loser and make his slam. Note, the key to the hand was not winning the Club Ace at trick one. As always it pays to take your time and not play too hastily at trick one.