Iris Apfel said, “You learn as you grow up, if you’re intelligent – or even three-quarter witted – that there’s no free lunch. You pay for things in various ways.”

This applies with a Michaels Cue-Bid or an Unusual No-Trump. First, if you do not buy the contract, you have given their declarer as good a road map of the deal as a GPS gizmo. Second, occasionally the killing defense will be more obvious – as in this deal.

Look at the West and North hands. West leads the heart ace against four spades. After East signals with the eight, how should West plan the defense?

North’s two-heart cue-bid showed at least 5-5 in spades and either minor. South’s jump to game was a tad aggressive.

Since the heart eight must be a singleton or the higher card from a doubleton, West cashes his heart queen, to which everyone follows. What next?

West must hope that his side can score two trump tricks. It is time for him to continue with a low heart. Then he has to hope that East realizes it cannot cost to ruff with the spade queen. You see the effect: When South over-ruffs with his spade ace, it promotes two trump tricks for West.

East should see what is required, because if South had a third heart, West would have cashed his heart king at trick three. (This was the key point behind leading the queen, not the king, at trick two.)

Lastly, note that if North had been the declarer, this defense would have been much harder to find.