BOLS REVISITED

By Patrick Jourdain (Wales)

One feature of Junior Bridge is that there is always a new generation of players who may not have heard the old saws. When the BOLS liqueur company ran a competition for journalists to provide advice of a general nature (“The five level belongs to the opponents” is perhaps the best remembered), my contribution was: “With eight winners and five losers in Three Notrumps, play off your long suit.”

This deal from Round 3 illustrates the point

Board 16. Dealer West. E/W Vul.
	ª K 9 7 2 © A Q J 10 6 ¨ 5 § A 10 5
ª A 4 © 9 7 4 ¨ A K Q 2 § K Q 9 4		ª Q 8 © K 2 ¨ J 9 8 6 4 3 § J 7 2
	ª J 10 6 5 3 © 8 5 3 ¨ 10 7 § 8 6 3

At several tables, after North had overcalled in hearts, East reached Three Notrumps. If South led a spade this must fail, but most led their partner’s suit, setting up declarer’s eighth trick. On Vugraph the Belgian declarer clearly did not know my Tip for he crossed to dummy to try to sneak a club trick by playing low towards the jack. North for Scotland, Robert Carr, was not hard-pressed to pop up with the ace and cash his hearts. One off.

If, instead, declarer simply plays out his diamonds, North cannot avoid giving declarer a chance. North can happily throw two spades and two clubs, but the pressure exerted by the last diamond proves unbearable. He must either throw a good heart, in which case declarer can safely play a club, or he has to bare the king of spades. Note that cashing the long suit works even if North had something like ªKQ with declarer having the jack. All that is needed is that the defender is hanging on to useful cards in three suits.

Sunamak, declarer for Turkey, knew the play, cashed his diamonds, and made his game when North for Sweden, Nystrom, bared his king of spades in the ending. The Danish declarer in the same contract also knew the Tip and duly cashed his diamonds. However, full credit goes to the Estonian North, Lauri Naber, who bared his king of spades, smoothly, before declarer played the last diamond, on which he threw a club. East could not believe North, if squeezed, had managed his discards without signs of distress, and eventually decided to play for hearts to be 4-4, despite the evidence to the contrary. He continued with a club. One off.

The main drama came in the match between Croatia and Italy where both tables were in Three Notrumps doubled on a heart lead:

Both Souths dutifully led a heart, with North putting in the ten. The declarers, Mazzadi and Sasek, won the heart and rattled off six diamonds. On the last one, the Croatian North threw a heart, and Mazzadi set up a club for his game. At the other table, the Italian North, Bernardo Biondo, bared his spade king, but Tomislav Sasek read the ending and played a spade to the ace. Well done. 750 was a flat board.