The same play from the other side

Tom McMakin, one-time CEO of Great Harvest Bread Co, said, “Equal participants doing similar things will generate lots ofnewideas.”Or,sometimes equal participants doing similar things will copy an earlier idea.Yes,thisisyesterday’s deal rotated by 90 degrees. This time, East doubles five spades instead of bidding six hearts. How should the defence go after West leads a heart? South might have bid four spades immediately over one heart. When he bid onespade,though,West reasonably pre-empted with fourhearts.Normally,this would have included at least five-card support, but you may have only four when holding a void. North rightly advanced withfourspades.Then,when East bid five hearts, South, not sure who could make what, opted for five spades. Finally, East, with soft values outside hearts,doubled.Westled his highest heart to deny an honour in the suit. East won with his king and had an easy shift to the club queen. South ducked that, hoping it was a singleton, but East continued with his second club. West took that trick and led a third club to permit his partner to overruff the dummy for down two. Plus 500 was an 80 percent score. How is this similar to anything? Because yesterday we looked at the best defence against hearts, which involved North’s winning the first two tricks with his diamond honours, then leading a third diamond to promote his partner’s trump queenasatrick.Oneplayisan overruff and one a promotion, but both result in an “unexpected” trump trick for the defenders.