Trump promotion Larry Hammick larry@hammick.com 2000.06.10 Contents 1. Declining to overruff 2. The uppercut 3. Trump promotion proper, and coup en passant 4. Economy of trump honours 5. Defensive trump pulls involving promotion 1. Declining to overruff When declarer weakens his trumps by ruffing with an intermediate card, the defence may give away a trick if they overruff in their long hand. Below are a few trump layouts. In each, the declarer or dummy ruffs a side suit, and a defender is in a position to overruff. 1) xxx 2) xx 3) 9x KTx xx Q9xx x K7x J8 AQJxx AKJTxx AQTxxx South ruffs with J. South ruffs with T. South ruffs with T. 4) KQJx 5) Qx 6) J T A9x 9 K8xx 9x K8xx xxxxx AJTxxx AQTxxx North ruffs with J North ruffs with Q. North ruffs with J. In each case, the defence gains a trump trick if they do _not_ overruff. If this seems mysterious, consider the following. When declarer ruffs with an honour, all the smaller trumps move up in rank: they are _promoted_. Some of these smaller cards, held by the defence, rise to the status of a second stopper in the trump suit. If the defender overruffs, he _demotes_ those cards back to what they were and the new stopper disappears. In (1) and (2), the defender can see the second stopper in his own hand; in the others, his partner's cards contribute to it. In each example, it is the defender with the _longer_ trumps who has a chance to overruff, and then only with a card which is already a stopper or a partial stopper. As far as I know, an overruff in the short hand cannot cost a trick in the same way. The same principle applies to declarer. Consider this trump layout: 752 T864 J AKQ93 At some point East scores a ruff with the jack. In general, declarer should discard a loser rather than overruff. In this example, he then gets 4 trump tricks and the opponents 2; if he overruffs he has only 3 trump tricks, but still has 2 trump losers and that side loser. As we saw for overruffs by the defence, it is overruffing in the _long_ trump hand that should be avoided. It can also happen that a ruff promotes the other side's cards by reason of length, as in: xxx Qxxx xx AKJT South ruffs with the ten. West should again decline to overruff (usually even if declarer may have five trumps, as well). 2. The uppercut In an uppercut, a defender ruffs in front of declarer or dummy, who is in a position to overruff. There are two varieties of this play: the third-hand uppercut, and the second-hand. In the commoner third-hand variety, the effect is that two defensive high cards contribute to two separate tricks. 7) xxxx 8) Kxxx Qx Jx J9x A AKTxx QTxxx West leads a suit of which East and South are void. East ruffs with the jack in (7) and with the ace in (8), gaining a trick for his side. In this sort of uppercut, the high ruff is normally in the shorter defensive hand. A third-hand uppercut is sometimes useful to declarer during a crossruff. In the ending, the trumps remaining might be: AJ ?? ??? KT With the lead in his hand and needing three more tricks, he ruffs with the A, then with the K, then with the J. If he were to ruff low earlier, a defender might overruff and return a trump, holding declarer to 2 tricks. In what we call a second-hand uppercut, only one of the defence's trump holdings is involved, and only one of declarer's. KJTx Ax 98x Qxxx Again West leads a suit of which East and South are void. East ruffs with the 8, forcing out the Q. If West can repeat the manoeuvre, East's 9 will score. Occasionally, the second-hand uppercut can be used to break into an enemy crossruff, enabling the defence to lead trumps. Qxxx x Axxx AKxx 98x Ax K QJxxxx KQTxx Jxx Q9xx Tx KJTx Axxxx x Jxx Against 4S, West leads DK to dummy's ace. Declarer cashes two clubs and HA, then leads a heart. West ruffs with the 8 and dummy with the Q. South ruffs a diamond and tries another heart, but West ruffs with the 9, so dummy discards a club. A trump to the ace and another trump leave declarer with only 9 tricks. Second hand may sometimes even ruff in with a trump winner; if he then leads a trump, the trick comes back, and if partner is able to win and lead another trump, a second trick comes in. With the exception of breaking into a crossruff, neither variety of uppercut will show a profit if declarer can discard a loser instead of overruffing. Moreover, an uppercut will (like any ruff) strengthen the declarer's control. Therefore the defence should gather in all the available side tricks before resorting to the uppercut. 3. Trump promotion proper, and coup en passant When a defender leads a card for his partner to ruff, but declarer may ruff first, the play may nonetheless gain a trick. xxx xxxx Q9xx Jxx xx Jx Qx K JT8 AKQxx AKT9x Axxxx East leads a suit of which South and West are void. This generates a trump trick for the defence, whether declarer ruffs high or not. Again there is no profit if declarer has a side loser to toss. A trump promotion by declarer, although identical, has a different name: "coup en passant" (a blow in passing). xxx Axxx AKxx xx x QJTx KQT9 Jx JTxx Qxx Q9xx JTxx AKxxx xxx xx AKx West leads HK against 4S. Declarer wins with North's ace and cashes SAK, finding that he has two trump losers. He also has two heart losers. But, by reducing his trumps, he can cause the defence's four winners to fall on three tricks. He takes DAK and ruffs a diamond, takes CAK and ruffs a club. The ending is: - xxx x - -- QJ Q J J -- Q J xx xx - - North leads a diamond through East, promoting a trump in the South hand. Like the defenders, declarer must cash all his side tricks prior to the trump promotion, for otherwise the defence can discard away from one of those side winners. 4. Economy of trump honours When declarer can afford a trump loser, but cannot afford a defensive trump promotion as well, a variety of safety play may be available to him. By leading through a defender's hypothetical trumps, he may leave himself in a position to ruff high, averting the trump promotion. Axxxx KQx Kxx xx -- KT9 Jxxx xxxx Qxxx Jxxx ATxxx Kx QJxxx Ax Ax QJxx West leads a diamond against 4S. Suppose declarer wins in hand and leads SQ. When West shows out, dummy follows small, and East wins. But now East leads K and another club. West wins the second round and leads a third, resulting in a trump promotion. The correct play is for declarer to win the opening trick in dummy and lead a small trump toward his QJ. If East goes up with the K, declarer can afford to ruff the third club with dummy's ace. Declarer would be equally safe against all three trumps with West. Likewise: Txx KQJx Kx QJxx AKJxx Ax Axx xx In 4S again, declarer wins the diamond opening in dummy, takes the trump ace, and leads a small trump toward the Tx. If West has Q9xx of trumps and something like Kx of clubs, South can now afford to ruff the third club in front of him. 5. Defensive trump pulls involving promotion Qx xxx KJ ATxxxx This is the trump suit, East is in, and declarer is threatening two ruffs in dummy. East should lead the trump K instead of the J. Either card stops a ruff at the cost of a trump trick, but the K removes dummy's _small_ trump, which is the one that matters. If South now ruffs just once, East's trump trick is reincarnated. Qx Qx Txx KJ xx KJT Axxxxx Axxxxx In these variants the defence has two trump tricks. The K is still the correct lead. Jxx JTx Jxx JTx xx QT9 xx Q98 xx QT9 xx Q98 AKxxx AKxxx AKxxx AKxxx With declarer threatening _three_ ruffs in dummy, East leads the Q. JT5 5 T964 KQ754 Q98 32 QT764 K3 A8 J7532 A63 JT98 AK764 AJ982 KQ 2 South has shown a good major 2-suiter and is in 4S. West opens DA, but must then switch to the trump _queen_. The unlikely opening lead of the trump queen would also succeed, but the trump 8 would not. In principle, these high trump leads do not gain unless: -- declarer is threatening to score ruffs with _all_ of dummy's remaining trumps, or -- with all but one, but the defence can lead trumps _two more_ times (or three more times, if the second trump lead also costs a trump trick). JTx xx KQ9 Axxxx Only two ruffs are threatened, but the threat is not immediate, dummy having a losing singleton. East leads the trump K to the ace, which costs a trick. The defence wins the singleton and takes the Q and another trump round. They end up with one trump trick instead of two, but declarer gets no ruffs instead of two. QT62 -- KJ98 A7543 East, with three natural trump tricks, fears that declarer can take four ruffs in dummy. He must start with the K. If declarer now takes three ruffs, East gets three trumps after all. But suppose only three ruffs in dummy are possible. Two trumps leads will cost him two tricks and save one ruff, but three leads will break even and four will show a profit.