BRIDGE BITES #41
|
THE DEVIL'S COUP
Brian Gunnell |
You could play a lifetime of
bridge without pulling off a Devil’s Coup, but it’s worth a look purely for
its entertainment value.
|
♠ AT4
♥
Q954
♦
KJ96
♣ A7 |
|
♠ J73
♥
A872
♦
T82
♣ Q54 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ Q8
♥
JT63
♦
753
♣ J632 |
|
♠ K9652
♥
K
♦
AQ4
♣ KT98 |
|
It looks like Partner has
overbid again because you find yourself in the dreadful contract of 6♠.
West cashes the ♥A
at Trick 1 and now the success of your slam depends upon losing no trump
tricks, missing QJ873. The chances of one defender holding QJ
doubleton are pretty remote (8%, actually) and you can do better by not
drawing trumps.
At Trick 2, you ruff the
Heart continuation, cash three Diamonds (ending in Dummy), ruff another
Heart, cash ♣A and ♣K, and ruff a Club, reaching this position, with the
lead in Dummy:
|
♠ AT
♥
Q
♦
9
♣
|
|
♠ J73
♥
7
♦
♣
|
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ Q8
♥
J
♦
♣ J |
|
♠ K96
♥
♦
♣ T |
|
Do you see how to win the
rest of the tricks?
►
Sure you do! You ruff
Dummy’s ♥Q
(even though it is a winner!) and, when the ♣T is led, the defense is toast:
-
If West
ruffs low then
Dummy overruffs and you score the last two tricks with the ♠A and ♠K
-
If West
ruffs high then
Dummy overruffs and there is now a finesse position against East’s Queen!
Devilish indeed! To bring
off this small miracle, West’s distribution had to be precisely 3=4=3=3 or
3=5=3=2 and he had to hold one of the missing Spade honors. We don’t know
if that offers better odds than the aforementioned 8%, but we are sure that
bringing off the Devil’s Coup is so much more fun!
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