Sarasota Herald-Tribune – Feb 10, 1968
Sophisticated defense doesn’t always succeed against a sophisticated declarer. Jais and Trezel played on the French team that won the 1960 Olympiad, but there was one hand in their match against one American team when their sophistication failed to pay off.
When North put down the dummy, he remarked, “I hope we haven’t missed a grand slam.” The nameless American expert who was declarer replied, “I know all about those grand slam bonuses.”
North and the referee laughed. Trezel, sitting West, joined in the laughter while Jais, sitting East, remained silent and looked very grave. South went into a huddle after playing the ace of hearts and called for dummy’s king of diamonds.
When Trezel showed out, Jais turned to South and asked, “How did you know?” South replied, “I always play queen over the Jack,” and proceeded to make his slam. At the other table France also reached six no-trump.
The French South gave the hand the classic play of trying and losing the club finesse at trick two. Then, after winning the second heart, he played out all his spades and clubs in an effort to obtain a count. Finally, he went wrong in diamonds and was down three.
After the match, which France won in spite of this hand, when he was accepting congratulations Jais asked once more, “How did you know?”
The American tried to shrugg it off, but Jais knew that he must have had some very good reason to play diamonds before he had to do so. The reason was that Jais was obviously trying to look like a man with the queen of diamonds, while Trezel was trying to look like a man who didn’t have it, and the American just decided to beleive both of them.