Trump promotion


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:
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, 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.
Sometimes, a defender can get a trump promotion by refusing to overruff:
Spades are trump, and hearts are led by South or West; knowing that East is void, declarer must ruff high. If East hastily overruffs with the king, that will be the last trick for the defense. However, if he discards a minor suit card, he will suddenly come into possession of two trump tricks—the king 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.