The Uppercut

First, a brief definition. The name of the game in suit contracts is often -- for both declarer and the defense -- to play your trump separately. It's not always possible, or if possible, not always profitable, and I did use the word "often". Still, it's not a rarity either for the defense to profit from such a tactic. The uppercut refers to that defensive play whereby a defender plays a trump, on a side-suit lead, high enough to promote a card in his partner's hand. Fr'instance:
10 8 7
Q 5 J 6
A K 9 4 3 2

In this heart contact West leads any side suit that East and the closed hand are out of. East ruffs with the jack, and you can see that his partner's queen will now be guarded enough to take a trick. That's an uppercut. You might note that if East ruffs with the 6, declarer overruffs with the nine, draws trump in two rounds, and East's ruff is a mere fleabite. Don't send a boy out to do a man's job is the watchword here. You might ruff with the 6, mistakenly thinking declarer must have one more card in the suit, hoping that perhaps you can subsequently use the jack on an uppercut.
Okay, we all misread the distribution by a card or two here and there. But if you intend for your play to be an uppercut, if you feel this is surely your only chance at uppercutting, then there is no excuse for playing the 6. You must come in with a high enough card to draw a top card from declarer. Your jack's a goner in any event, so why not try to use it to some purpose.
The term is also commonly applied in this situation:
A K 7 4
Q 6

West leads a suit both dummy and East are out of. It is obvious that whatever declarer does about that lead, East's queen will be a winner sooner or later. I resisted the term "uppercut" in that situation for some time, since it seemed to lack the image of thrusting up at declarer. Declarer might even sluff a loser in dummy for all you know. But there's no point in quibbling over semantics, so let it suffice to say that the term is commonly applied to such situations where the promotion comes through a lead through top trump, and not from the defense using its trump separately.
I had intended to develop this page for some time and kept putting it off until I saw an example in Frank Stewart's column, and decided to start with that case as in the hand below:
K 7 5 2
7
A K Q J 2
10 8 5
J 10 Q 6 4 3
A 9 2 8 6 4
9 7 8 6 5 3
A K J 7 6 4 9 2
A 9 8
K Q J 10 5 3
10 4
Q 3

The contract is four hearts. West leads his top clubs, dropping the queen and continues the suit, declarer ruffing as East sluffs a low diamond. Now he knocks out the ace of hearts, and the rest is history, a spade going on the third round of diamonds. When West saw his partner's trump, he was "fit to be tied", then relaxed a little saying he should have underled the jack to induce the uppercut. Frank Stewart sagaciously attributed 100% of the blame to each defender.
This is one of the most innocuous-looking cases of a successful uppercut you'll find. A six and then an 8 will do the trick? To promote a 9? When declarer has such a solid sequence as K Q J 10? And the answer is yes. The first card knocks out the 10, then an honor has to be led to draw the ace, leaving two honors, and a second uppercut draws one of them -- leaving West with a guarded 9 back of a single honor for a second heart trick.
Stewart acknowledged that West might have underled his jack to induce the uppercut, but blamed East just as much for not giving it anyway. The 8 and the 6 and the 4? What are you going to do with them anyway? Is there any chance that the 8 is going to win a trick on trump leads? So you might as well see what the 6 (with the 7 showing) will do. Obviously if declarer has either the ace or the 9, that will be a mere fleabite. But it doesn't hurt. You can see declarer can run diamonds as soon as trump are out.
So you might as well offer these otherwise useless trump cards separately from trump leads if you can to see what they just might do for the partnership.