Devil's coup

The Devil's Coup is a declarer play in contract bridge that prevents the defense from taking an apparently natural trump trick - often called "the disappearing trump trick".[1]

Example

♠A 9
♥3
♦—
♣—
♠Q 4

N

W               E

S

♠J 3 2
♥7 ♥—
♦— ♦—
♣— ♣—
North to lead ♠K 10 7
♥—
♦—
♣—

A typical example is shown where spades are trumps and the lead is in dummy (North).

The ♥3 is led. If East ruffs low, then declarer overruffs low and cashes the ace and king of spades. If East ruffs high, declarer overruffs with the ♠K and finesses West for the ♠Q to make the remaining two tricks.

Devil's coups are fairly rare: not only the trump suit but the side suits must lie well for declarer.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Francis, Henry G., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Francis, Dorthy A., Editor, Sixth Edition (2001). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (6th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. p. 114. ISBN 0-943855-44-6. OCLC 49606900.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 2/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.