Declarer Play -- Try the Finesse?

Read the High Card from the Short Side and the Finesse posts first if you haven't already.

The bidding was: My partner (who is now Dummy) opened the bidding 1♦. My RHO overcalled 1♠. I chose to respond 1NT. My LHO passed and my partner bid 3♦. (3♦ here should show about 16-18 HCP and 6♦.) My RHO passed and I bid 3NT which ended the auction.

Contract 3NT. Opening lead 7♠.

Dummy
♠98
♥AQ5
♦AQJT93
♣A9

Declarer
♠A32
♥J74
♦K7
♣J8763

In NT we count our winners. We look at each of the suits and determine how many tricks we can take in that suit immediately.

♠1 winner
♥1 winner
♦6 winners
♣1 winner

This adds up to 9 winners. I am in 3NT. No problems there. Any way to get more winners? How about a ♥ finesse? I could try to play the J♥ from my hand towards the AQ♥ in Dummy. If LHO has the K♥ I will get an extra trick.

Any problems with that? Seems like an easy way to make an overtrick.

So I win my A♠ and play the J♥. My LHO plays small and I play small. My RHO wins the K♥ and starts playing ♠ after ♠ after ♠. They ended up with 6 tricks and I am down in my contract. Which is a little confusing considering I had 9 tricks at the beginning. What went wrong?

Well once I won the A♠ I need to recognize the fact that I am in BIG trouble with the ♠ suit. If the opponents get in (either one!) they will take ALL their ♠ winners. So I CAN'T let them in. Luckily I have 9 tricks right away so I can make my contract. In this case I do NOT want to finesse the ♥. It's just not worth taking a chance of going down in my contract in order to make one extra trick.

So back to the beginning. I will win the A♠ and now take my 9 tricks right away. I will remember to play the high cards from the short side of the suit in ♦. So I will play the K♦ from my hand first. Then I'll play the 7♦ towards all the ♦ in Dummy. Then take my 2 other Aces. 3NT bid and made.