Jennbridge: A Trump Coup

Here is a fun hand from the San Francisco sectional a couple of weeks ago.  My partner was Jo Ginsberg.  As dealer at unfavorable vul., I opened two spades:

♠ AQ10976
♥ Q8
♦ 876
♣ J8

LHO doubled and everyone passed!  I had a little anxiety as the ace of  clubs was led and the dummy was put down:

♠ 85
♥ 9643
♦ AQ109
♣ 754

♠ AQ10976
♥ Q8
♦ 876
♣ J8

A quick assessment revealed that I only had 4 quick losers and the spades were very good--only missing the
king and jack.  The king and queen of clubs followed as RHO pitched a low diamond (ostensibly encouraging) and I ruffed.

Hoping that LHO had both diamond honors I led a diamond to the 10 and it held.  I followed this with the 5 of spades to the 6 in my hand and LHO showed out.  Not surprisingly, RHO started with KJxxx of spades.

I led another diamond and LHO played the jack and I won the queen, RHO following again.  It looks like diamonds are 3-3.  I then played the 8 of spades from the board and let it hold.  What now?

I have won 5 tricks and here are the remaining cards:

♠
♥ 9643
♦ A9
♣

♠ AQ10
♥ Q8
♦ 8
♣

I decided to lead a heart from the board and, to my surprise, RHO won the king and cashed the ace before he continued with another heart which I ruffed.  I now played my last diamond, and as RHO was down to all trumps, he had to ruff and lead a spade into my AQ tenace!  Plus 670 was worth 21 out of 25 matchpoints.

Thinking about the hand later, I started wondering whether I really needed to risk the double finesse in diamonds and also whether they could actually beat me.  Here is the entire hand:

SF sectional

Board 6 East Deals E-W Vul	♠ K J 4 3 2 ♥ A K 10 ♦ 5 3 2 ♣ Q 3
♠ 8 5 ♥ 9 6 4 3 ♦ A Q 10 9 ♣ 7 5 4	N W E S	♠ A Q 10 9 7 6 ♥ Q 8 ♦ 8 7 6 ♣ J 8
	♠ — ♥ J 7 5 2 ♦ K J 4 ♣ A K 10 9 6 2

West	North	East	South
		2 ♠	Dbl
Pass	Pass	Pass

2 ♠ x by East

As it turns out, I can always take 6 spade tricks as long as I don't do anything silly like play a high honor prematurely.  I can always take 2 diamond tricks as well, bringing the total to 8.  It is important to pay some attention to the timing, playing two rounds of spades before exiting with a red card.  But, interestingly, if these precautions are taken, the contract is cold.

The contract can be made even if the defenders manage to cash their 4 winners before I ruff in.  In that case, after ruffing in at trick 5 and playing two rounds of diamonds and two rounds of spades, as described, a heart can be led from the board to ruff and continue to shorten my trumps--the key to executing a trump coup. This leads to the same ending as above:  exit with the last diamond which RHO will ruff perforce, and win the last 2 tricks with the AQ of spades.

One last scenario:  If the opponents cash their 4 winners and shift to a diamond, the timing for the trump coup will be destroyed, but I'll be able to take 3 diamond tricks and 5 trump tricks--losing a trump trick at the end. 

See you at the table!