The Crocodile Coup is a play in the game contract bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

. It is executed by the defense: specifically by the second hand to play to a trick

Trick-taking game

A trick-taking game is a card game or tile-based game in which play centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks. The object of such games then may be closely tied to the number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as Whist, Contract Bridge, Napoleon, Rowboat, and...

. It is the play of a higher card than might seem necessary, to keep a run of honors from being blocked by a singleton honor being in the other hand with either no entry back to the remaining tricks, or having to return the lead to declarer who can promptly dispose of his losers.

In the following example, West executes the Crocodile Coup:

With spades trump, South hopes to win four of the remaining five tricks. South leads the 4. Now:

If West plays the Q, East is forced to win the K. If East then returns a heart, South ruffs and West is squeezed in the minors. If East returns a club, South wins the K and plays the 9; again, West is squeezed. If West plays the A, executing the Crocodile Coup, West then cashes the Q and holds South to three tricks. West opens the jaws of the AQ to swallow up the K.

Note that if the East-West hands were reversed, it would take no special acumen for East to overtake West's K and cash the Q.