Trump promotion is a technique in contract bridge where the defenders create an otherwise non-existing trump trick for themselves. The most common type of trump promotion occurs when one defender plays a side suit through, in which both the declarer's hand and the other defender are void:
♠
6
♥
KQJ
♦
5
♣
—
♠
J7
N
WE
S
♠
4
♥
53
♥
2
♦
—
♦
73
♣
4
♣
8
East to lead
♠
KQ5
♥
6
♦
—
♣
Q
Spades are trump. If the declarer were on lead, he could draw trumps and claim the rest of tricks; however, with East on lead, when he leads a diamond, declarer has two unfavorable choices: if he ruffs low, he will get overruffed by West. If he ruffs high (with an honor), the West's spade jack will become a trick.
In general, it is not required that the defense leads to the trick; often, the "killing suit" can be led by the declarer (because of an error or because he doesn't have anything else to lead).
Sometimes, a defender can get a trump promotion by refusing to overruff:
♠
AQJ9
Spades trump W leads hearts
♥
—
♦
—
♣
K
N
E
♠
K104
♥
—
♦
8
♣
4
Spades are trump, and hearts are led by South or West; knowing that East is void, declarer must ruff high (with the queen or jack). If East hastily overruffs with the king, that will be the last trick for the defense. (The A and Q will take care of his now-doubleton T) However, if he discards a minor suit card, he will suddenly come into possession of two trump tricks—the king (which he was always entitled to) but also the ten - he can play low on the ace, take the queen with the king, and still have the ten.
When the same motive is used by the declarer, it is referred to as Coup en passant.
In contract bridge and similar games, a finesse is a type of card play technique which will enable a player to win an additional trick or tricks should there be a favorable position of one or more cards in the hands of the opponents.
In the card game of contract bridge, to hold up means to play low to a trick led by the opponents, losing it intentionally in order to sever their communication. The primary purpose is to give as many tricks to opponents as needed to exhaust all the cards in the suit from one of their hands. If that hand regains the lead, it will not be able to put the partner on lead to cash its tricks. Hold up is one of basic techniques in play.
In trick-taking games, to ruff means to play a trump card to a trick. According to the rules of most games, a player must have no cards left in the suit led in order to ruff. Since the other players are constrained to follow suit if they can, even a low trump can win a trick. In some games, like Pinochle and Preferans, the player who cannot follow suit is required to ruff. In others, like Bridge and Whist, he may instead discard. Normally, ruffing will win a trick. But it is also possible that a subsequent player will overruff. Historically, ruff meant to "rob" i.e. exchange a card with the stock.
In contract bridge, coup is a generic name for various techniques in play, denoting a specific pattern in the lie and the play of cards; it is a special play maneuver by declarer.
An endplay, in bridge and similar games, is a tactical play where a defender is put on lead at a strategic moment, and then has to make a play that loses one or more tricks. Most commonly the losing play either constitutes a free finesse, or else it gives declarer a ruff and discard. In a case where declarer has no entries to dummy, the defender may also be endplayed into leading a suit which can be won in that hand.
In contract bridge, the trump squeeze is a variant of the simple squeeze in which one threat is a suit that if unguarded can be established by ruffing.
In contract bridge, an uppercut is a defensive play that involves one of the defenders ruffing high in the knowledge that an overruff by the declarer will result in the promotion of a trump card in their partner's hand into a winner. Thus, the technique presents a type of trump promotion.
The Devil's Coup is a declarer play in contract bridge that prevents the defense from taking an apparently natural trump trick – often called "the disappearing trump trick".
Morton's fork is a coup in contract bridge that forces an opponent to choose between
letting declarer establish extra tricks in the suit led; or
losing the opportunity to win any trick in the suit led.
Smother play in contract bridge is a type of endplay where an opponent's apparent trump trick goes away.
Scissors coup is a type of coup in bridge, so named because it cuts communications between defenders. By discarding a card or cards either from declarer's hand or from dummy or both, declarer can stop them from transferring the lead between each other, usually to prevent a defensive ruff.
The trump coup is a contract bridge coup used when the hand on lead has no trumps remaining, while the next hand in rotation has only trumps, including a high one that would have been onside for a direct finesse if a trump could have been led. The play involves forcing that hand to ruff, only to be overruffed. A similar motive is met in coup en passant, where indirect finesse is used instead of direct.
Coup en passant is a type of coup in contract bridge where trump trick(s) are "stolen" by trying to ruff a card after the player who has the master trump(s).
These terms are used in contract bridge, using duplicate or rubber scoring. Some of them are also used in whist, bid whist, the obsolete game auction bridge, and other trick-taking games. This glossary supplements the Glossary of card game terms.
The Bath coup is a coup in the game of contract bridge in which the declarer, who holds AJx(x) in a suit, ducks the left-hand opponent's lead of a king in that suit. The coup is presumed to be named after the city of Bath in England and dates from the game of whist, the predecessor of bridge.
Backwash squeeze is a rare squeeze which involves squeezing an opponent which lies behind declarer's menace. A variation of this, known as the "Sydney Squeeze" or "Seres Squeeze", was discovered in play at a rubber bridge game in Sydney, Australia in 1965, by the Australian great Tim Seres; it was later attested by famous bridge theorist Géza Ottlik in an article in The Bridge World in 1974, as well as in his famous book Adventures in Card Play, co-authored with Hugh Kelsey.
In the card game contract bridge, a suit combination is a specific subset of the cards of one suit held respectively in declarer's and dummy's hands at the onset of play. While the ranks of the remaining cards held by the defenders can be deduced precisely, their location is unknown. Optimum suit combination play allows for all possible lies of the cards held by the defenders.
In the card game of bridge, tempo is the timing advantage of being on lead, thus being first to initiate one's play strategy to develop tricks for one's side. Tempo also refers to the speed of play and more generally the rhythm of play over several tricks.
A forcing defense in contract bridge aims to force declarer to repeatedly ruff the defenders' leads. If this can be done often enough, declarer eventually runs out of trumps and may lose control of the hand. A forcing defense is therefore applicable only to contracts played in a trump suit.
In bridge, a knockout squeeze is a squeeze in three suits, one of which is the trump suit. The defender's trump holding is needed to prevent declarer from making a successful play involving trumps, including one as prosaic as ruffing a loser. Because the knockout squeeze does not threaten to promote declarer's trumps to winners it is termed a non-material squeeze. Other non-material squeezes include entry squeezes, single-suit squeezes and winkles.
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