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Trump En Passant
Imagine a two-card ending. There are three trumps still at large. Declarer has the bare King left, and his RHO has the Ace and Queen. If the lead is in Declarer's hand he cannot take another trick. But, if the lead is in Dummy, and a suit in which Declarer has no cards can be led, then the King scores a trick en passant.
Related Play Problems Play Problem 100
Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games
The play in 4♣ is most interesting! It might go like this: ♠K overtaken by the Ace Heart shift, low from Declarer, won by Dummy’s Ace Heart to South’s King Spade ruff Cross to the ♦A Spade ruff Diamond ruff Heart ruff Diamond ruff Declarer has timed the play well, scoring three ruffs in Dummy. Now, with four cards remaining, he has just trumps left, AKT5. He plays the Ace and, when South shows out, he exits with a low trump, end-playing North. 10 tricks!
Does North do better to return a trump at Trick 2? Actually, no! Now the play goes: ♠K overtaken by the Ace Club shift won by Dummy’s Six Cross to ♦A Spade ruff Diamond ruff Spade ruff ♦Q run around to South’s King Spade ruff Now Declarer can cash the ♣AK, cross to the ♥A, and score his last trump en passant.
West might well have passed 3♣ doubled, and that would have been a great success, down two for +300. Our West guessed to bid 3♥. Will he make it? Sure he will! Club won by Declarer’s Ace Club ruff Cash three top Spades, pitching Diamonds Cross to the ♦A Club ruff Diamond ruff By now, Dummy’s trump holding is down to the stiff ♥K, and North has ♥AQJ8. Declarer has already scooped up eight tricks, and the ninth trick materializes when Declarer leads his last Club, scoring Dummy’s ♥K en passant.
Reaching 4♠ looks routine enough, and the question is “How many tricks can you make after an opening Club lead?” Assuming a 3-2 trump break, Declarer can count 4 natural trump tricks and 6 side-suit tricks. That’s 10 tricks and Declarer can get the total up to 11 by taking a Club ruff in Dummy. It won’t help to try for 12 by getting a second Club ruff, that will only promote a second trump trick for the defense. Does that mean that 11 tricks is the limit? Not at all! What is needed here is a Dummy Reversal. Instead of ruffing two Clubs in Dummy, Declarer will plan to ruff Diamonds in hand, setting up a long Diamond in the process. The play goes as follows: Opening Club lead won by the Ace Cash ♦A Cash the three Hearts Cross to the ♠A Diamond ruff Cross to the ♠K Diamond ruff Cross to the ♣K Now Declarer ruffs another Diamond. West can over-ruff this, in which case Dummy takes the last two tricks with the last trump and the long Diamond … or West declines to ruff (pitching a Club), in which case Dummy scores the Spade Four en passant by leading a Club. Either way, it’s a lovely 12 tricks!
The moral of the following story is “Beware of low-level lead-directing Doubles”, here’s what might happen. Suppose that North throws in a Double of that artificial 2♣, and E-W (somewhat improbably, perhaps through a misunderstanding) decide to tough it out in 2♣ redoubled. No doubt this decision will have been based on their good controls, their ruffing values, and an eagerness to get their names into the newspapers. North leads a Heart won by Dummy’s Ace … now ruff a Heart, cross to the A♦, ruff a Heart, cross to the A♠, ruff another Heart, cash K♠ and Q♠. Now North is down to 5 trumps and nothing else, with the KQ976 sitting in front of the J3. Declarer leads another Spade, and Dummy’s Jack scores a trick en passant. That’s 9 tricks and +1160 for E-W!
Of course, with E-W having a substantial majority of the points, and control of Dummy’s second suit, a trump lead is usually called for, even if it is the singleton King. Does a lead of the K♦ beat the contract? Actually, no! Declarer wins the Ace, ruffs a Heart, cashes the Spades and ruffs a Spade. Now, it’s Club ruff, Heart ruff, Club ruff, Heart ruff. At this point, Declarer has scored 10 tricks, and scores her last trump en passant when she leads a Club from the Dummy. West, with Q8, under Declarer’s singleton Jack, is helpless.
Playing in 2♥, North has plenty of tricks, provided that she can maintain trump control. The best defense is to weaken Declarer’s trumps by repeated Spade leads, but that allows Declarer to scramble 9 tricks in exotic fashion: Spade to West’s King Spade ruffed by Declarer Low Diamond (not the King!) to the Queen and West’s Ace (ducking won’t help) Spade ruffed by Declarer Diamond to the Jack Club finesse A♣ and K♣ are cashed Another Club, East ruffing with the Ten (nice try!), overruffed by Dummy This takes us to a delightful 4-card ending: Declarer ♠ ♥ Q8 ♦ K ♣ 7 West East ♠ 3 ♠ 76 ♥ K93 ♥ 74 ♦ ♦ ♣ ♣ Dummy ♠ ♥ A2 ♦ 65 ♣ Declarer has 7 tricks and must score two more. When Dummy leads a Diamond, West cannot ruff without conceding a trick to the Q♥, so he pitches a Spade. East ruffs and does best to return a trump. But to no avail, Dummy’s Ace wins that trick, and now another Diamond allows Declarer to score her Q♥ en passant!
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