[nige1]

In my challenge against Sfi, I declared 6♥ as South on this deal
LHO led ♦9 - the curse of Scotland
After misguessing the trump suit, I should recover with a trump coup.

I shortened dummy's trumps by ruffing 2 ♠s
but then had to decide which minor suit was breaking.
From the previous play, I should know that LHO started with 2 ♦s,
So I can succeed by cashing only 2 ♦s before playing on ♣s.
My last ♣ coups LHO
- If LHO ruffs then I over-ruff ,draw LHO's last trump, and cash dummy's 3rd ♦ winner.
- If LHO discards, then I discard dummys ♦ winner and a ♦ from hand finesses LHO's trumps.

Instead, at trick 9, I messed up by trying to cash a 3rd ♦
and chucked 26 imps.
Such are the vicissitudes of life

---

[sfi]

nige1, on 2018-December-17, 03:15, said:

Instead, at trick 9, I messed up by trying to cash a 3rd ♦
and chucked 26 imps.
Such are the vicissitudes of life

It would have been a nice play. Those of us in the cheap seats thank you for finding it in the post-mortem.

[johnu]

nige1, on 2018-December-17, 03:15, said:

Instead, at trick 9, I messed up by trying to cash a 3rd ♦
and chucked 26 imps.

I can remember making a lot worse plays than that the last couple of times I played (even though I'm trying my best to forget )

[Tramticket]

A trump coup is one of those plays that you can only pull off if you have come across the technique before. Shortening the trump suit is second nature to Nige1, it's a pity that you missed the inference on the diamond length from the opening lead!

[The_Badger]

What a pity, Nigel. If players reading this are wondering why the ♦9 is "The Curse of Scotland" here's the Wikipedia entry:-

https://en.wikipedia...rse_of_Scotland

Here's another bridge hand where the ♦9 switch proves to be disastrous for the defence. Just to balance things out, Nigel

https://bridgefeed.a...se-of-scotland/

[ahydra]

Can one rely on GiB's leads to be honest? Also there are a number of players who lead 9 from 9xx, so it's at least in part a guess. You might figure it out from East's play though - the 9 likely denies the J, so East holds J72 or J1072, and with the former he might have overtaken the 9 at trick one.

The fact you can throw away a winner to coup West is pretty cool.

ahydra

[johnu]

ahydra, on 2018-December-17, 20:18, said:

Can one rely on GiB's leads to be honest? Also there are a number of players who lead 9 from 9xx, so it's at least in part a guess.

Sometimes GIB makes totally random leads so anything is possible. As far as a lead from ♦9xx, RHO-East played the 2 and 7 on the first 2 diamond tricks so the opening lead was either ♦93 which is a somewhat normal lead, or ♦J1093, ♦1093 or ♦J93 where the 9 is surprise to say the least.