BRIDGE NOTES: The brilliance of Bridge coups

In a trump contract declarer usually has a wider spectrum to cover for unlike a no trump contract where there is a straight forward race between declarer and the defence in trying to knock out first the other sides stopper to make or break the contract, in a trump contract there are numerous tactical strategies available for both the declarer and the defenders, let us first take a simple illustration of play in trumps and see how declarer uses some of the strategies available to him to make his contract.
NS are in 4S on the following hand:
The opening head from west is QS. Put yourself in the south seat and plan your play. As you can see south has 2 loss in trumps and 2 in diamonds. What strategy do you adopt to make 10 tricks in a 4S contract?
When declarer look the first trick in hand with the AS and cashed KS to find the shocking distribution, did he just buckle own to concede defeat or did he find a way to wriggle out of this adverse distribution? Yes, the contract is makeable as the cards be. Discovering the bad break in trumps, declarer keeps his wits about and with strong nerves embarks on a cross ruff strategy to visualise the 10 tricks in trumps. He cashes dummy, 2 top heart honour and ruff a heart in hand. Then he cashes AK of clubs and ruff a club in dummy. Another heart ruff in hand with west following to it declarer has managed to take 2 top trump tricks. 2 top hearts and 2 top clubs making 6 trick adding 2 heart ruffs in hand a club ruff in dummy to net in 9 tricks with AD providing the 10th trick.
Let us now change the trump holding of west and east. How would the declarer have managed the 10 tricks required? No problem following a similar line of play. But after a heart ruff in hand and a club ruff in the dummy, this would be the 4 card ending:
What does south now play? Yes, he leads the last heart from dummy to score one of his low trumps irrespective of whether east ruffs or not. This is the stratagem employed in such an adverse trump situation and such a stratagem is called in Bridge as coup en passant.
Let us test our play in the next illustration where NS reach a contract of 6S on the following hand:
The opening lead from west is 6 C. Declarer tries the J C but east wins with the K C to return a club won in dummy. The declarer now needs to run the trump suit netting all tricks to make his little slam. When declarer plays K S and finesses J S, west gives him a jolt by blanking out, discarding a heart. This is a disturbing situation for the declarer but not a helpless one. Can you see how declarer can make his way through to net in the remaining tricks?
In a yet another use of Bridge stratagem declarer makes his move by cashing AH to ruff another heart in hand. Then come the 3 rounds of diamond cashed ending in dummy to ruff yet another heart. Then dummy is entered by JC to arrive at this end position:
Here the wisdom of the declarer by shortening his trump holding to that of his opponent clearly shows. As you can see declarer's A9 is perched over east's Q8 with the lead in dummy. The Bridge stratagem employed here known as the trump coup brings this little slam home.
West east trumps were split 4-Q873. But suppose in a contract of 6S, west holds KQ9 of trumps over declarer's holding of AJ10875-west's double gives the show away. N S hold:
On a club lead, declarer plans a trump coup, cashing AD, AKQ of clubs, finessing dummy's 10H, ruffing a diamond in hand and subsequently 2 more ruffs of diamonds using dummy's hearts. With AJ10 left, he endplays west by leading JS in a classic show of the brilliance of Bridge coups.

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 North         West       East        South
===========================================
  7 5 2    Q J 10 9          6    A K 8 4 3
A K Q 3     Q 9 4 2     J 10 7          6 5
9 6 5 4         J 7   K Q 10 3        A 8 2
    8 5       J 9 3  Q 10 64 2        A K 7
===========================================

==========================
  North              South
==========================
    K 6       A J 10 9 5 2
A 8 6 3                  5
  A 8 5              K Q 2
A Q J 2              7 4 3
==========================

==========================
N        W       E       S
==========================
-        -     Q 8    A 10
8        Q      -        -
-       10      -        -
2        -      -        -
==========================

==========================
    N     W      E       S
==========================
    -     -     Q 2    8 4
    8     Q      -       -
9 6 5    J 7    K Q    8 2
-          J     -       -
==========================

==========================
 North               South
==========================
  642              AJ10875
 AQ10                  K82
K1084                    A
  J52                  AKQ
==========================