Trump Promotion

In bridge, a trump promotion is any defensive play that "promotes" a trump loser into a winner. This is commonly done by forcing declarer to ruff a trick with a trump honor. When a defender ruffs a trick to force declarer to overruff with an honor, this is a particular type of trump promotion called an uppercut.

		Dummy
		Q432
		9875
West		T8		East
65		AQJ		AK987
QJ				62
QJ7653		Declarer		42
T97		JT		K542
		AKT43
		AK9
		863

South declares 4 and appears to have two spade losers and one club loser. However, look what happens if West leads a spade. East cashes the ace and king before leading a third round. If declarer discards, then West will ruff. If declarer ruffs low, West will overruff. Finally, if declarer ruffs with a high heart, West's QJ holding is promoted into the setting trick.

A trump promotion can also occur when a defender has the opportunity to overruff declarer (or dummy), but chooses not to. This is the case in the following deal:

		Dummy
		875
		Q8432
West		T8		East
K932		AKQ		6
97				AK65
7543		Declarer		QJ62
T97		AQJT4		J542
		JT
		AK9
		863

South is playing in 4. It looks like there are only two heart losers and one spade loser. But if West leads a heart, East can win the top two hearts and play back a third round. South may well ruff with the T. In that case, West can discard a club or diamond and thereby score two trump tricks later. If West makes the mistake of overruffing with the K, South can win any return and draw the remaining trumps to make the contract.