Thursday Tips 12
This week’s tip is: Even when you think something is impossible, don’t just give up and concede. The following deal gives us a great example of why. The deal comes from Tuesday 30/9/25. It also gives us a very easy to understand example of when the seemingly impossible is possible if you know the basics of the “Trump Coup”.
Board 25. Dealer N NS Vul
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AK8
AK
AQ73
AQ92I won’t go too much into the bidding other than to say that 6NT is a reasonable but conservative slam, with 30 out of 140 bidding 6NT (but eight of them couldn’t make!) but some more conservative players might choose 6H.
My earlier tips have said two things about slams: bid them in your best suit fit and if you bid a grand slam make sure you can count thirteen tricks. If you can count thirteen sure tricks bid 7NT but if thirteen tricks are not certain then bid the grand slam in your long suit if you have one, because a) that suit will need to produce all its available tricks and b) the fact that you have a trump suit will give you extra chances of developing the vital thirteenth trick if needed.
That said, let’s say NS have landed in a (statistically) very good 7H grand slam (there were none out of 140 pairs in 7H). Look at all the hands: disaster! The suit breaks 4-1. Terrible news. But there is some good news, if you’re willing to give it a try and not concede immediately! It is EAST who has four hearts to the jack. So, after West leads the jack of clubs you win the king, get the awful news after AK of hearts from dummy, and you must now try to score all six of your trumps despite East holding Jxxx!
You play two top spades and ruff the third. Then a club to dummy’s queen and a low club on which East discards a diamond. You ruff and lead a diamond to dummy’s queen and now tempt East to ruff the ace of clubs, but East discards a diamond. But it only prolongs East’s agony.You also discard a diamond and then you play king of diamonds, ace of diamonds in dummy. Two low diamonds in dummmy are dummy’s last two cards, J8 of trumps with East and Q10 in your hand, with the lead in dummy! That is a fine example of a trump coup.
