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Trump Coup with less trumps than defender


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Hand #12 in tuesday's national simultaneous tournament in Italy allowed declarer to reach this elegant finish after winning 10 tricks:

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sha9dc8&w=sq9hdcj&n=s7hd97c&e=shjt5dc]320|240[/hv]

 

The contract is 6 by South, which makes when he now plays from dummy.

 

Is this a Trump Coup, or does it have some other name?

 

I ask because the descriptions I see say "To execute a trump coup, declarer must have exactly the same number of trumps as the defender" or similar.

Here we have one less, although the effect is the same.

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It looks like a combination of a trump coup and an endplay. If East ruffs high, declarer discard from hand and East is endplayed. If East ruffs low, declarer overruffs cheaply and plays a club and East is forced to ruff his partner's winner, then declarer makes the last trick with the trump ace.

 

It is a bit like when you learn squeeze play for the first time, you learn that you need to rectify the count so that you have one loser, yet some squeezes (e.g. a strip squeeze) operate on two or more losers.

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This perverse and fascinating hand was tricky in bidding terms too, I'll post it if I find time.

With strong diamonds in North and 33 HCP on the line, a moysian 6 was not the mainstream choice and maybe rightly so (MP), but the only slam that could make double dummy.

 

No surprise that even those who called it failed to make 6, as declarer has to decide early on the trump split (or so it seemed to me) as well as get things right.

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If East ruffs with the T or J, South must play the (club or heart) four in these three (surprsingly similar?) cases:

 

1)

[hv=pc=n&s=sha9dc4&w=sq9hdc3&n=s7hd97c&e=shjt5dc]399|300[/hv]

 

2)

[hv=pc=n&s=sha9dc4&w=sq9hdc3&n=s7hd97c&e=shjtdc5]399|300[/hv]

 

3)

[hv=pc=n&s=sha94dc&w=sq9hdc3&n=s7hd97c&e=shjt5dc]399|300[/hv]

 

1) and 2) both have trump promotion as a theme, obviously.

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