At the Buffett Cup in Omaha this month probably the best defense occurred in the diagramed deal. It was played in three no-trump four times, but the contract failed only once. The defenders were Fulvio Fantoni (East) and Claudio Nunes (West), who represent Monaco. West led the club nine. This was a Slawinski lead, from either an even number of cards with at least one honor, or an odd number of low cards. At double dummy (everyone knows where all of the cards lie), under dummy's club king, East could have discarded a spade or diamond (except the diamond ten) and defeated the contract with care thereafter. But that was tough to see. Instead, East threw the heart three, low encouraging. Now South could have made the contract by playing a spade to his nine. West could have won with his ace and shifted to a diamond, but declarer then could have won with the jack, cashed his three spade tricks and exited with a heart to endplay the opponents. Instead, South played a spade to his king. West defended perfectly, winning with his ace and shifting to his diamond to destroy declarer's communications. South won with dummy's ace and cashed the king, getting the bad news when West pitched a club. Declarer continued with a spade to his nine and took his other two spade winners before leading a heart. But Nunes won with his queen and continued with his remaining heart. East cashed his two heart winners, bringing everyone down to three cards. North had the Q-9-4 of diamonds, and East retained the 10-8-7 of diamonds. East had to get another trick for down one. The Long Island Fall Regional will take place from Oct. 2 to 7 in Smithtown, N.Y. Details are at acbl.org.