Driving a coupe

Trump coup: to capture without loss or to reduce the trick-taking power of an opponent's trump holding by any combination of trump reduction and/or arranging effectively to lead a plain-suit card through that opponent in an ending.

[From the Bridge World Glossary, see here. Also see the Wikipedia definition here.]

Two weeks ago, there was a regional tournament in Tunica at Sam's Town Casino. Because bridge players like to gamble, it was well-attended.

I played Saturday in the Open Pairs with Cindy Bernstein. We had a big game in the first session and around average in the second to come in fifth. I forgot our system on one board for a 0. Then, in fourth seat I had a 12-count with a singleton spade and chose to pass it out for 0.5 matchpoints -- ouch! If I turn those two around we win.

This was my favorite deal of the day (rotated).

                ♠ Q 8 3
                ♥ K 4
                ♦ K J 10 9
                ♣ K 10 9 5
==
                ♠ K J 7 4 2
                ♥ A 7 2
                ♦ 7 5
                ♣ Q 8 3
       West   North   East   South
                      Pass   Pass
       1♦    Pass    1♥    1♠
       3♥    3♠      All Pass

West led the ♥Q. How would you tackle it?

I won the lead in dummy and played the ♠Q, taken by East with her ace. She returned a heart and I won this in hand to advance the ♦7. West grabbed his ace (so I put him on the ♦Q as well) and he exited a low club. I put in the ♣10, jack and I won the queen. What is going on?

First, how do you place the high-card points? East showed 6 and West showed 16-18, counting distribution. There just aren't enough points to go around. Somebody's cheatin' and lyin' or maybe they slipped in a pinochle deck.

Because West has only the ♣A, ♦A Q and ♥Q J, I decided he must have a singleton spade to have the values for his jump rebid.

I ruffed my heart loser and advanced the ♠8. I had decided to let it ride, but East made it easy by covering with the 9. I won this and led a diamond to the jack before cashing the ♦K. East could see it was a give-up play to ruff, so she discarded a club, as did I. I led dummy's last diamond and ruffed, then exited with a club at trick 11. West took his ace, but my last two cards were ♠J 7 positioned over East's ♠10 6. Life is sweet.

Here are all four hands:



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