Trump Coup

A trump coup is a means of drawing an opponents trumps when those trumps are finessable except for the fact that declarer does not have trumps in either dummy or his hand necessary to take the finesse.  So he must arrange the play such that the defender will be forced to trump in front of the tenace, and thereby effect the finesse.  In the auction below 4  is Namyats, showing a good 4  opener - 4NT is RKCB for Spades, 5  shows 1 Key Card.

                   AQJ9862              W     N     E     S

                   54                                 4!   P    4NT!

                   ---                          P     5!   X     6

                   KQJ3                    X      P     P     XX

KT54                                  7

KJT                                    Q763

532                                     KJT98

954                                     862

                   3

                   A982

                   AQ764

                   AT7

On the 2 lead, a heart is discarded from dummy.  South then ruffs a Diamond in dummy and plays the Ace, getting the bad news.  To run the trump coup dummy's spades must be shortened to the same length as West.  So it goes Heart to the Ace, Heart ruff, club to the Ten, Heart ruff, King of clubs, club to the Ace.  We are now at, with the lead in the South hand:

                   QJ9

                   ---

                   ---

                   Q

KT5                             ---

---                                Q

5                                 JT9

---                                ---

                  ---

                  9

                  Q76

                  --

South cashes the Queen discarding the Queen from dummy.  Now any card from South and West gets 1 trump trick only.

Compiled by Lorne Russell 2005