Bridge

More of that old black magic

Opening lead— nine of diamonds.

The trump coup is a seemingly magical device by which declarer can take a finesse in the trump suit without leading the suit! To those unfamiliar with the trump coup, this might seem impossible, but it can be accomplished nevertheless.

Take this case where West leads a diamond and East cashes the K-A before returning the suit for West to ruff. West exits with a club, won by declarer with the queen. South then leads a low trump to the king, and when West shows out, it appears declarer must eventually lose a trump trick to East’s queen and go down one.

But if South is familiar with the trump coup, he realises he may still be able to make the contract. He starts by leading a heart to the ten and then begins to shorten his trump length in order to reduce his holding to the same length as East, who now holds the Q-9.

Accordingly, South leads a spade to the king, ruffs the deuce of spades, then leads a club to the king and ruffs the ace of spades! At this point, declarer’s hand consists of the ten of clubs and A-J of hearts, dummy has the ace of clubs and 10-8 of diamonds, and East the nine of clubs and Q-9 of hearts.

South now leads the club ten to the ace and returns a diamond, and poor East’s Q-9 of trumps succumb to South’s A-J — even though declarer was unable to lead a trump from dummy to trap the Q-9.

Observe that the success of the operation depended on two key factors: the equalisation of South’s trump length with that of East’s, and making sure the lead came from dummy at trick 12.