Column 7B70 (9-15-85) by Richard Pavlicek

Trump Coup Lands Slam

One of the top winners was Betty McCoy of Ft. Lauderdale, who won the two-session Open Pairs. As South on today’s deal, she opened one heart, then routinely rebid two hearts on the next round. After that she listened as West and North played cat-and-mouse up to the six level. West ended the auction with a double for no obvious reason other than “general principles.”

6 x by South

N-S Vul	3 J 9 6 A K J 6 5 K 10 6 5
A Q J 9 8 7 5 — Q 8 3 J 9 7		K 6 10 7 5 2 9 7 4 Q 8 4 2
Lead: A	10 4 2 A K Q 8 4 3 10 2 A 3

West 1 3 4 5 Dbl

North 2 4 5 6 All Pass

East Pass Pass Pass Pass

South 1 2 Pass Pass Pass

West began with the spade ace and then shifted to a low club, which was ducked around to the ace. A spade ruff was followed by a heart to the ace, revealing the bad trump break. It was now apparent that declarer could not draw East’s trumps if she ruffed her last spade in dummy. As the cards lie, declarer could get home by establishing the diamond suit (either by ruffing or taking the finesse), but this was problematic (not to mention mundane). Instead, she made her contract on a trump coup.

The top diamonds were cashed, followed by a diamond ruff, a spade ruff with the heart jack (East discarding a club), and another diamond ruff (East shedding another club as it would be suicide to ruff).

Finally, a club was led to dummy’s king as East helplessly followed suit. At this point East held 10-7-5 in trumps and South held K-Q-8. With dummy on lead, it was a simple matter to win the remaining tricks by overruffing East as cheaply as possible.

And that’s how tournaments are won!