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The Grand Coup by Steve Becker

Gainesville Sun – Apr 10, 1993gc

Good card play is mostly a matter of doing the right thing at the right time. Moreover, it seldom requires complicated thinking. The so called advanced plays come few and far between and, when they do they are usually easy to execute.

The Grand coup,  for example, is a rather scary term for a simple play but it is not difficult to execute when the occasion arises. The nice part about the grand coup is that it is readily recognizable, and all you have to do is take care of the details.

Opening lead—diamond9

Take this case where West led a diamond and East played the diamondA, diamondK followed by the diamond10, which West ruffed.

Declarer won the spade return with dummy’s ten and cashed the ace of hearts, on which West showed out. Having lost three tricks. South had to avoid losing a trump trick. One finesse could certainly be taken against East’s queen, but how could South eventually overcome East’s remaining heart suit Q-9?

This is the typical Grand Coup position. Declarer must take what amounts to another trump finesse, even though he does not have a trump to lead from dummy.

The solution lies in declare’s reducing his trump length to that of his opponent and then leading a card from dummy, usually at trick 12, to trap the adverse honor.

To this end, South starts by finessing a heart at trick six and then overtakes the king of clubs with the ace. He next ruffs a club, leads a spade to the queen and ruffs another club. Dummy is now entered with a spade, reducing everyone to two cards. A diamond lead forces East, who has the Q-9 of trumps, to ruff, and South takes the last two tricks with the heart suit K J.

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