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BRIDGE BITES #37 THE TRUMP COUP Brian Gunnell

This week’s deal contains a little bit of magic whereby a “certain” trump loser evaporates into thin air thanks to some well­timed Declarer play.

♠ T9 ♥ AQJ ♦ A543 ♣ AQ52 ♠ 2 Dummy ♠ K765

♥ T83 West East ♥ 9654 ♦ JT96 ♦ Q72 ♣ JT984 Declarer ♣ K7 ♠ AQJ843 ♥ K72 ♦ K8 ♣ 63

Against your 6♠ contract West leads the ♣J. You finesse the Queen but that loses to the King and East returns a Club to Dummy’s Ace. It was a fine slam when Dummy went down but it got worse when that Club finesse lost. Now you must pick up the trump suit for no losers. You run the ♠T and it holds. You say a silent “Yippee!” but that quickly changes to “Rats!” when you repeat the finesse and West shows out. How will you overcome this setback?

East still has ♠ K7 but there are no Spades left in Dummy with which to repeat the finesse. That might seem like a certain trump loser but you have a resource, it’s known as a Trump Coup. For this to work you must shorten your trumps down to two (the same length as East) and also make sure that you win the 11th trick in Dummy. If you can do that, then when you lead from Dummy at Trick 12, East will be forced to ruff in front of you, thereby losing his “sure” trump trick.

So, after the second trump finesse wins, the play goes: ♦K; ♦A; Diamond ruff; over to Dummy’s ♥Q; Club ruff; back to Dummy’s ♥J. The ♥A is now cashed and at Trick 12 Dummy leads a Club (or Diamond) and East is forced to ruff in front of you. Great stuff! Be sure to realize that you needed both those ruffs in your hand, if you had not shortened your trumps to the right length then there would have been no Trump Coup. Here’s another Trump Coup, this one quite spectacular. ► ♠ AK3 ♥ AT ♦ T86 ♣ KQ642 ♠ 874 Dummy ♠ T92

♥ West East ♥ Q7432 ♦ AKQJ532 ♦ 97 ♣ JT7 Declarer ♣ A98 ♠ QJ65 ♥ KJ9865 ♦ 4 ♣ 53

You are South, declaring 5♥ after West has bid Diamonds. East has doubled, alerting you to a bad trump break. West leads Diamonds and you ruff the second round.

There is the ♣A to be lost, which means that you cannot afford a trump loser. The ♥Q is probably with East, but the extreme bidding by West suggests some distribution and it seems quite likely that East has four or even five Hearts. What’s your plan? ► Even if you couldn’t see all four hands you should be thinking Trump Coup at this point. Yes, the title of this piece is a definite clue, but so was East’s rather foolish Double, giving you advance warning of the bad trump break. To start with you want to knock out the ♣A, so you lead a Club to Dummy’s King and East’s Ace. You win the Club return and run the ♥T. The good news is that this wins the trick, the bad news is that West shows out! Yikes! But all is not lost. East started with six black cards and provided that he has at least three Spades the contract is now cold! Next, you ruff a Club, and when both defenders follow you know that East started life with 3=5=2=3 distribution. You cash three Spades ending on the board, leaving this lovely end­ position:

♠ ♥ A ♦ T ♣ 64 ♠ Dummy ♠

♥ West East ♥ Q743 ♦ QJ53 ♦ ♣ Declarer ♣ ♠ J ♥ KJ9 ♦ ♣

You lead a Club (or a Diamond) from the board and East is obliged to ruff. You overruff and lead a Spade, ruffing with the Ace in Dummy. East must ignominiously underruff, and then at Trick 12 finds himself the victim of a Trump Coup, with ♥Q7 sitting under Declarer’s ♥KJ! Declarer’s fine play provides suitable punishment for East’s foolish Double. Back to Index