Sunday, October 30, 2011

Avoid a trump coup



Hi, this is Lak's partner. After an eventful auction, we are defending against 5Hx in the same team event. Lak leads the K of diamonds, declarer ruffs, plays the ace of clubs and concedes a spade, partner plays the 8. What now?

At the table, I thoughtlessly play small, sort of expecting N to return a trump, but I'm also quite happy for now with the diamond continuation. Too late now! Declarer ruffs, then ruffs two spades in dummy and pitches one on the K of clubs. I have to ruff the Q of clubs, declarer overruffs, plays the ace of trumps and throws N in with her last spade. To add insult to injury, that completes a trump coup as declarer has KJ of hearts left behind my QT - 5 hearts made. (Click "next" to follow the play.)

I need to overtake the spade at trick 3 and return a trump, the standard defense against a cross ruff. Declarer cannot avoid losing a total of three spade tricks - down 1.
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1 comment:

  1. LakOctober 31, 2011 at 9:13 AM

    I can make it easy for you by playing low on the trick, but I'm not sure about your spades. if your winners are in hearts, then a forcing defense is best.

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