DEVIL'S COUP
(Coup d' Etouffement =
death by suffocation)
This is a very rare type of throw-in Coup that can be done only
in suit contract to capture opponent King of Trump that appears
to be impossible be captured like in this hand bellow:
North N-S is playing 6
A32
and the lead was 9
A32
As we can see N-S has 2 losers:
K and 3th
8765
AK2
West
East
K654
7
765
QJ1098
432
QJ10
987
10654
The Play by South:
South After South make
Q he finesse Spades
QJ1098
two times then play AK Clubs and AK
K4
Hearts and ruff a Heart.
AK9
Finally South play AK Diamonds and give
QJ3
the last Diamonds to East.
Final of two cards where East must play is:
North
A
8
West
East now East must play
Q or
10
K6
Q
and South will ruff with 9
and if
10
West play the K then
North make
South
the A, if West play
6 then South
109
makes 9 and the last trick
will be A!
================================================
Another very rare situation is the play of a Grand Slam where is missing
QJ854 in the trump
suit. Of course this can be done if QJ are second but this
is not the best chance and the Brazilian bridge's champion Nelson
Martins Ferreira
play it in 1974 considering trump 3-2 and honors divided in a overbid contract of 7
:
North = Synésio
K73
the lead was
J
AKQ2
109754
A
======
South = Nelson
A10942
5
A32
KQJ9
So declarer must search for a final of 3 cards where:
K7
x
Hx
Hxx
x
-
A109
-
In this position North play his loser Diamonds and if East ruff low then
South cover with
9
and claim, but if East ruff with an honor then South cover with the A
and must finesse West honor playing the
10
to let run if West play low Spades.
Nelson knew the best chance to play in this configuration and play it
quickly discarding in the top Hearts 2 losers Diamonds and ruffed the
last Hearts that was 4-4. Now he Plays Ace Diamonds and go to dummy in
Ace Clubs to play Diamonds and ruff. Then he plays 2 top Clubs and ruff the last
Clubs hopping for Clubs 4-4. Finally he was in the desiraded
configuration and when East do not served Diamonds he only need honors
divided to have success.
trick01 - A
was made
trick02 - K
South discard a Diamonds
trick03 - Q
South discard another Diamonds
trick04 - x
was ruffed and both opponents served
trick05 - A
was made
trick06 - A
was made
trick07 - x
was ruffed
trick08 - K
was made
trick09 - Q
was made
trick10 - J
good
was ruffed and opponent start to know what is going on and so he ruff
with Q
in case his partner has J9
trick11 -
was ruffed Q
East and A
made the trick
trick12 -
10
was made finessing
trick13 -
K
was made
Nelson and his broter Synésio Martins Ferreira won in this year of 1974
the South American Championship. Nelson also won the São Paulo state Chess
championship in 1944. He was a engeneer polytechnic that also study arts
market and have a collection of pictures that he buy one or two by
year. Besides that he loves horse races and had stud farm. In 1980 he buy
a fast pedigree mare and crossed with a imported French long distance horse.
In the born foal he
put the name "As de Pique" (Ace of Spades) and sell his stud
farm. In 1984 As de Pique, his only horse at that time, won the São Paulo Grand Prix - most important
horse race in São Paulo. The distance was 2400 meters in green and As de
Pique at the start was in goal 19, but after 600 meters. like
Secretariat, As de Pique take the first position to gallop alone until
the end of the race running fast than the others in the last 200 meters.
Nelson died with 83y
in 2004, but he stays in our bridge's memories until now.