The vanishing trump trick

There is something magical about a bridge deal in which an apparently certain trump trick is made to disappear.

Today’s deal was reported by Guy Dupont in the French newspaper Le Figaro. It was played brilliantly by Roger Benabou.

North, after his partner overcalled three spades, spent some time trying to get to seven but eventually gave up the fight. (Usually, it pays to be cautious following a preemptive bid because it presages bad breaks.)

West led the heart six. Benabou won with dummy’s ace and made the farsighted play of ruffing the heart five in his hand. He unblocked the club ace before leading a spade to dummy.

When East discarded, it looked as though declarer had two unavoidable losers: one spade and one diamond. However, Benabou found the way home.

Declarer cashed dummy’s club king-queen, discarding diamonds from hand. He ruffed the club 10, cashed the diamond ace-king and played a spade to dummy.

Finally, Benabou led dummy’s heart jack. After East covered with the queen, South discarded his last diamond, as did West. Dummy remained with the spade ace and diamond eight. East had two hearts. South held the spade 10-nine, and West the spade jack-seven.

When East led a heart, South ruffed with the spade nine. What could West do? If he overruffed with the jack, dummy would overruff with the ace and South’s spade 10 would win the last trick. If West underruffed, dummy’s diamond loser would be discarded.

This is known as a Smother Coup. It is a very rare bird in the bridge aviary.