A Triumph For "pepsi Cola" In Bermuda Bowl Match
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday December 18, 2001
Jacek Pszczola (known colloquially in English-speaking circles as "Pepsi Cola") is one of Poland's best players and a frequent winner playing as a pro on the tough US circuit. He demonstrated his declarer play skills on this deal from the round robin match between Poland and Indonesia in the 2001 Bermuda Bowl:
West North East South
-- Pass Pass 1H
Pass 2C* 3D 4H
Pass Pass Pass --
* Drury
Opening lead: CK
Since South had a good opening bid, he was happy to bid game in hearts once North had used the Drury convention, promising heart support and checking on the strength of South's third-in-hand opening bid. Four hearts is quite a good-looking contract, but after declarer had won the club lead and cashed the ace of hearts, the sky became overcast. The risk was that declarer would lose two hearts and a club, with potential losers in the spade suit also involved. After pausing for thought, declarer could visualise the end-position he hoped to achieve. At trick three, he led the jack of clubs, taken by West, who switched to a diamond. That was won in dummy and a club was ruffed. A spade to the queen was next and when that held, dummy's last club was ruffed. The ace of diamonds
was cashed and a spade played to dummy's ace. At this point declarer had won eight tricks. This was the position, with the lead in dummy:
When dummy's spade was led, East's jack won, West discarding a diamond, but what now? Whatever card East chose to exit with, declarer had to make a second trick in trumps. Declarer would either follow suit with a spade, or discard his spade on a diamond. In either situation, if West didn't ruff high, one of dummy's trumps would score, while if he did ruff high, declarer's K9 of hearts would score two tricks.
At the other table, in the same contract, the Indonesian declarer played for West to hold both the
king and jack of spades. He won the diamond lead in hand, cashed the ace of hearts, getting the bad news and followed with a spade to dummy's 9 and East's jack. The contract could no longer be made, declarer finishing one trick short. The swing to Poland was 10 imps.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald