A Bridge Tale

If you seek a happy ending – do not read this tale...

Once upon a time there lived four bridge players: The Wise, the Evil, the Victim and The-one-who-can't-bid. They were all seated North and given the same bridge deal, with a huge prize in case they solve it successfully.



Let's listen to them explaining how they solved the problem:

The Wise: In bridge, what matter most is trump length. Therefore, after finding out we have 9 hearts together, I bid the correct slam in hearts.



The Evil: In bridge, what matters most is... ME! Therefore, I bid the slam in spades so that I get to play the hand.



The Victim: In bridge, you should always try to play in NT. Each time I play in a suit contract, I end up getting cross-ruffed by my opponents!



The-one-who-can't-bid: I don't know how to bid. Therefore, when my partner bid 2♣, 5♣ and 6♣, I passed his last bid, thinking he has at least 6 cards in clubs.



Can't-bid's partner got ♦A lead, followed by another diamond. He won with the ♦K, cashed ♣QJ, came back to hand on the ♥A, cashed ♣AK (discarding hearts from dummy), finessed spades and threw all his heart losers on the good spades.

The Victim also got a diamond lead from East. After winning the 2nd diamond trick, he played exactly as Can't-bid's partner and made 12 tricks.

The Evil received the same diamond lead. He unblocked his ♦K on West's ♦A and won the 2nd diamond with dummy's ♦Q. He continued with a spade finesse, played two more rounds of spade, cashed ♣QJ , came to dummy on the ♥A , threw his 2 heart losers on dummy's ♣AK and claimed.

And what happened to The Wise's partner? He also got a diamond lead and had to go down after losing a trump trick later, on the trump suit chosen by his wise partner. "Why does my partner need to be so wise?", he cried.