South arrives at 3 NT with no interfering bidding and gets the 6 of Hearts lead from West.

Declarer can see eight sure tricks and must look for that sometimes allusive 9th trick. I didn’t specifically identify who had the Club Ace so it wouldn’t be obvious on how to play the hand double-dummy.

You actually have two choices to make your 9th trick: lead toward the Club King hoping that West has the Ace or trying to find the 9th trick elsewhere, for example in the Spade suit.

What would you do?

In order to give yourself the best chance for success it’s usually best to review some probability situations. Finding the Club Ace favorably located is a 50-50 chance.

Obviously if the Spade suit divides evenly then your 9th trick can come from that suit. The odds of finding the Spades being divided 3-3 is about 36 percent.

Double dummy, you can see the Spade suit isn’t breaking favorably. However, without the benefit of seeing all the cards, a good strategy would be to test the Spade suit before falling back on playing Clubs.

If it wasn’t for that attacking Heart lead declarer would have been able to test the Spade suit before having to fall back on the Club suit.

So, playing without the benefit of seeing all the cards, it’s more favorable to play for the Club Ace to be located on side.

So who has the Club Ace?

It doesn’t matter because there’s only one intelligent way to play this hand. Go with the odds, lead toward the Club King.