ONE PLAY DIFFICULT, ONE PLAY TEXTBOOK

Hilary Knight, a top women's ice hockey player, said, "The real answers aren't in textbooks; they can be found through experiences."

This deal contains two key plays. One is not in the textbook and would be missed by almost everyone; the other is in every good defense opus.

Can you spot these defenses in today's deal, where East-West are trying to defeat two spades after a predictable auction?

West led the heart king and continued the suit when partner encouraged. East took trick two and led his other high heart, which South ruffed with his spade eight. West overruffed and shifted to the diamond jack, ducked to East's king. East tried another heart, but South ruffed with his spade seven, played a spade to the jack, returned to his hand, drew trumps and had the rest of the tricks with the diamonds 3-3. The contract had been made with an overtrick for a 93.3% board.

West could have saved the overtrick and some 20% by not overruffing at trick three. In general, if you have a high trump honor that will always win a trick with some length in the suit, don't overruff.

East missed a much harder defense. He could have defeated the contract if he had shifted to his club at trick three. Suppose declarer wins on the board and runs the spade jack. West takes that trick and gives his partner a club ruff. Now East leads his remaining high heart. South can ruff and draw trumps, but then he has no spades left. When East gets in with the diamond king, he can cash hearts. That would have given East-West an 80.0% score.