Declarer claims, defenders call the Director...

[Hanoi5]

Declarer tables the hand and says 'My hand is good'. A defender says, 'No way, I have an ace of one of your suits' and calls the Director. The defender holds the aforementioned ace but also cashable AK in a side suit (No Trump was being played). Director says 'All right you lose three tricks and the rest is yours'. Dummy says 'You can't make my partner play the club first! She'd play the red ones and only lose the last trick!' (But that is nowhere near what Declarer had said...) 'Where in the law does it say that?'

[barmar]

Law 70D1 says:

The Director shall not accept from claimer any successful line of play not embraced in the original clarification statement if there is an alternative normal line of play that would be less successful.

It's up to the Director to judge whether playing the club first is "normal", which includes "careless or inferior for the class of player involved". If he thought all his cards were high, he might choose to play the clubs first.

[blackshoe]

Yes, he might, and that leads to the ruling the director at the table made, dummy's indignant objection notwithstanding.

[billw55]

Agree with three tricks to the defense, and glad to see a declarer get what he deserves in such a situation. Cheers to the director.

[Xiaolongnu]

Totally agree with the Director. In fact this sounds so familiar coming from over zealous club players who really want to win but do not know the proper way. Club players just find it hard to accept that we are to assume the worst reasonable case, they think we are treating them like idiots.