Wild And Optimistic Punt

Pages: Page 6 of 6

Dealer: West
Vuln: Game All
Scoring: Pairs
  1. spade
  2. heartA 1 0
  3. diamondQ 8
  4. club
  1. spade
  2. heartJ 8
  3. diamondJ 9
  4. club
Green square in centre
  1. spade
  2. heartQ 7 3
  3. diamond
  4. clubJ

Contract: 7heart
Declarer: South
Lead: diamond6
  1. spade
  2. heartK 9 5
  3. diamond
  4. clubQ
When the diamondQ is played from dummy, whatever East-West do, their trump trick disappears into thin air.

An original trump holding of A10xx opposite K9xx typifies the classic 'Devil's Coup' requirement. You might wait a lifetime for the opportunity to bring off this coup, but on this occasion the East-West distributions were perfect for the wayward bidders to succeed.

Only once in my bridge life have I been able to reach such an endgame. We were well behind in the match and, looking for swings, we'd bid a really lousy 6diamond. The opposition's opening lead away from a king had given me a vital extra trick but I had later lost a trick to an outside ace. After cashing some winners and taking several ruffs I eventually reached a similar situation to that shown in the diagram, but with just three tricks remaining. My LHO looked disconsolate, but when I led from dummy at trick eleven my RHO said "Don't worry, partner". He held QJx of trumps. Doh!
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