ACES ON BRIDGE

“Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!”

— Thomas Gray

The main variant on the Bath Coup (in which declarer ducks a king lead when holding ace-jacklow), sometimes referred to as the Dirty or Pigpen Coup, is relatively rare, but sufficiently elegant that once seen, it is not easy to forget.

After North’s mildly pushy raise, South reaches a slightly unlucky three no-trump and receives the lead of the heart king, which simply shows the queen as well. (If the partnership played the lead as requesting the unblocking of an honor or as count, a false-card here would be far less likely to succeed.)

Assuming clubs split, which he probably should, declarer is easily home if the diamond finesse is right, but he has a problem if the finesse is wrong. If he wins the first heart, he risks losing five redsuit tricks. If he instead plays the classical Bath Coup, ducking the first trick, the defense may switch to spades and establish the setting trick there instead.

The solution is to play the heart jack at trick one (called the aforementioned Dirty Coup because it is the reverse of a Bath Coup) to encourage West to press on with hearts. South can win the second round happily enough, to take the diamond finesse. Clearly, if East wins and has a heart to play, then the hearts were 4-3 initially and the contract is in no danger.

Should West get this right? I’m not sure. A lot depends on how much he trusts either East or South.

The first time this position comes up, I would expect South’s maneuver to pay off.

ANSWER: Bid two hearts. Do not gamble on one no-trump. Your club fit (even if partner might occasionally have only three) and good hearts suggest two hearts will always be playable. If you pass, partner might not be able to bring in the hearts, holding any doubleton or three small cards. The ideal five-card suit to rebid is one full of intermediates. Strangely enough, the two top hearts are less critical.