Bridge
29 August, 2026
Never smile at a crocodile
You won't find too many advanced plays that are named after animals, but this one is.
You won't find too many advanced plays that are named after animals, but this one is. Vulnerable against opponents who are not vulnerable, you are sitting West and as dealer, you open a weak 2♠️. This is passed around to South, who doubles. North responds 3❤️ and South bids 3♠️, asking for a stopper. North rebids 4❤️. Now, to your surprise, South jumps to 6♦️!
With no obvious good lead, you table ♠️J and this is what you see:
The first trick goes ♠️J, 3, 5, A. Declarer plays ♦️A, drawing your jack, then ♦️K, Q and 10, partner following with ♦️4, 5, 8 and 9. Now declarer leads ♠️6. What will you play?
You should first ask yourself: how are the spades distributed and what do you think is going on?
Clearly declarer does not have ♠️Q or she would have won the first trick with that card. Therefore partner has it and spades must be 6-3-2-2 around the table. Equally clearly, declarer started with 7 diamonds, so there are 4 cards remaining in her hand that you don't yet know about. To justify her strong bidding, they must surely include ♣️AK.
Declarer's spade exit seems to imply that she wants the defence to open up either the hearts or the clubs. However, if declarer needs a finesse in clubs, why isn't she crossing to dummy's ace to take it? Is it possible that she is void in hearts?
If you get to that point, you should know what to do – rise with ♠️K, dropping partner's queen, then play ♠️10, forcing declarer to ruff.
In fact any other defence surrenders the contract, because this was the complete deal:
If partner is allowed to win trick 6 with ♠️Q, she must either give access to dummy with a heart, allowing declarer to discard a low club and take the club finesse; or else lead a club, in which case declarer finesses ♣️J and succeeds anyway because clubs are 3-3.
The play of ♠️K to prevent partner from being endplayed is an example of what is known as a Crocodile Coup. The name is explained as below on the BridgeBum website.
The crocodile coup is so named because second hand must "swallow" or "snap up" his partner's winner like a hungry crocodile.
Rakesh Kumar
The Southern Highlands Bridge Club runs three duplicate sessions every week (Mon 1:00 pm, Wed 6:30 pm, Sat 1:00 pm) at the East Bowral Community Centre. Highlands players and visitors welcome!
For more information: https://shbc.bridgeaustralia.org
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