Neither vulnerable. South deals.

Neither vulnerable. South deals.
NORTH
J 10 8 3
4
A 10
A 10 8 6 5 4
WEST EAST
6 Q 7 5
A 9 8 2 K J 6 5
K Q J 9 8 5 6 4
7 2 Q J 9 3
SOUTH
A K 9 4 2
Q 10 7 3
7 3 2
K
The bidding:
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
1 2 3 Pass
3 Pass 4 Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of
Not a duplicate aficionado, Trump Coup Tommy could nevertheless be inveigled once in a while to compete in a duplicate event. Such was the case when a business trip brought him to Dallas at the same time as the Spring North American Championships were held there.
As is usually the case when Tommy is around, a trump coup soon reared its head. This time, though, TCT was the helpless victim. The perpetrator was one of the newest inductees into the Bridge Hall of Fame, Michael Becker of Boca Raton, Fla.
After West's overcall of Becker's one-spade opening bid, North's jump to three hearts was, by agreement, a limit raise or better in spades. South showed a minimum opening bid by simply correcting to three spades but North's distribution, four trumps and two aces merited continuing to game.
West led the king of diamonds, which was allowed to hold. Declarer won the continuation with the ace, came to hand with the king of clubs and led his remaining diamond. Instead of ruffing in dummy and risking an overruff, he discarded the table's singleton heart! East also parted with a heart.
West exited with a low heart, ruffed on the board. A club ruff was followed by cashing the ace of trumps. Another heart was trumped on the table and the ace of clubs was played, declarer discarding a heart from hand. When West could not ruff this trick, the layout was clear.
Becker came to hand with a club ruff, trumped his last heart with the jack of spades and remained with K 9 of spades over East's Q 7. A club from the board allowed South to coup East and land a valuable overtrick.
& copy;2006 Tribune Media Services
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