From                 31st October, 2007, Board 22

                                          Theme               Trump Coups

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr East            E-W Vul                 Hands Rotated

                                                                                                   for Convenience
 

Here's a hypothetical auction, mere window-dressing for the problem at hand:

West    North   East     South

                        Pass    Pass

1♠        Pass    2♣       Pass

2NT     Pass    3♥       Pass

7♠        Pass    Pass    Pass

That 7♠ bid was thrown into the auction in order to create a Double Dummy Problem, not because it is a sensible bid.  North leads the K♦ and you win the Ace.  How do you make 13 tricks on the following layout?

	♠ QT6 ♥ Q ♦ J65432 ♣ A64
♠ ♥ JT765 ♦ KQ98 ♣ QJT7	North    West          East            South	♠ 9543 ♥ K43 ♦ 7 ♣ 98532
	♠ AKJ872 ♥ A982 ♦ AT ♣ K

SOLUTION

You don’t have the entries to cash Clubs (pitching a Diamond) and then ruff out the Diamonds, so the only realistic plan is to ruff 3 Hearts on the board.  Here is a line of play which does not work:

            Win the A♦

            Cash the A♥ and ruff a Heart

            Cross back to the K♣ and ruff a Heart

            Cash the A♣, pitching a Diamond

            Ruff a Club and ruff another Heart

At this point, Declarer’s hand has nothing left but trumps, the AKJ87 to be precise.  Alas for Declarer, South has 9543, and all of that Heart ruffing on the board has only served to promote a trump trick for South.

Is there a solution?  Yes, Declarer can engineer a Trump Coup, but he must shorten his trump holding, down to the same length as East, in order to bring that about.  Look how things change if Declarer arranges to get one more ruff in hand, as in:

            Win the A♦

            Cash the A♥

            Cash the K♣ and ruff a Heart

            Cash the A♣, pitching a Diamond

            Ruff a Club and ruff another Heart

            Ruff a Diamond and ruff another Heart

Now, the hand is perfectly timed!  Declarer’s trump holding is down to the same size as East, and any lead from Dummy will force East to ruff in front of Declarer, vaporizing his trump trick.