A perfect Yarborough

Yarborough: A hand containing no card higher than a nine.

---

Harold was bored. All evening he got terrible cards, he did not get to declare a single hand.

His lovely partner tried to cheer him up: “Unlucky in cards means Lucky in love”, she said with an encouraging smile.

Harold didn’t find that comforting. He was not lucky in love either.

“I have luck in both, cards and love”, said his opponent, annoying him even further.

“Maybe this time you will get better cards”, his partner maintained her positive attitude.

“Well, if not – I’m going to move to the club next door. I heard that they deal more points to poor players like me”, continued Harold pouting, and pulled out his cards from the board.

He squinted: These were no doubt the worse cards he had since the beginning of the evening. A big fat nothing. A perfect Yarborough.

Dealer South, All Vulnerable

Though still in shock that cards can be as bad as these, he did notice his partner’s lead directing double, and being on lead he led the ♣8.

“That’s it. The war is over for me”, he mumbled while giving a huge yawn for everyone to see, that his role in this hand is over.

His Partner won with the ♣Q and cashed the ♣A too. Seeing high-low in Harold’s hand, she continued with the ♣K which won the trick too (Harold discarded a Spade).

While she thought of her next move Harold remarked to his opponent: “I bid a direct 3NT with 3-3-3-4 distribution”, he said, while another huge yawn appeared on his face during this sentence.

“Shhhh… I’m thinking”, said his partner.

“And I’m bored”, mumbled Harold and started to shuffle his cards and move uncomfortably in his chair.

Finally (after what seemed like an eternity to him) she played a 4th round of Clubs.

“I don’t get cards, but I get a partner who lets opponents get a ruff & discard”, he commented, pitching another Spade.

Declarer ruffed with the ♥6 and played the ♥Q, finessing East’s ♥K, then claimed 10 tricks after he finished drawing trumps.

Harold’s partner, usually very peaceful and optimistic, was really angry: “Your behaviour today is awful. Playing thoughtless and shooting insulting comments left and right. All this while managing to play badly and make mistakes with a 0 points hand, destroying my brilliant defense!”

Harold made a face that clearly said “what could I possibly do with my Yarborough hand” and opened his mouth to speak, but before he got to utter a sound his partner snorted:

“I counted you with a Yarborough. Declarer showed 15 points, I had 14 and dummy showed 11, that left nothing in your hand. That means opponents hold ♠AKQ, ♦AKQ and ♥A, which puts my ♥K in a bad place, suggesting they can make 4 Heart tricks. Having no further side tricks, our only hope laid in the trump suit, of course, assuming that you have the common sense to wake up in time and co-operate with me. All you had to do was ruff the 4th Club with your ♥7. That move forces the ♥10 out of dummy and helps me promote my ♥9! The ♥Q will be covered with my ♥K, taken by the ♥A. On the ♥J I follow with the ♥8. And my ♥9 is good!”

Harold felt miserable: “Looks like even with a perfect Yarborough the war is not over yet”.

The Monkey’s Paw

The Monkey’s Paw is a supernatural short story by author W.W. Jacobs. The story was also in a chapter of Tales from the Crypt, which featured horror stories with unexpected ending.

The story presents a door to door salesman. A neighbor asks him what’s the strangest thing he brought from his trips abroad, and the salesman said it was a bewitched monkey’s paw, imploring him to buy anything but this item:

“Don’t buy it! It has magical powers, a fakir put a spell on it. Whoever owns it can ask for three wishes to come true. Your wishes will be granted, but they come to you in the most unexpected and malicious way.”

The man was intrigued by the story, and bought the paw all the same. He did not believe all the magic nonsense, and to prove his point he held the paw and said: “I wish to get 20000 pounds by tomorrow”.

Nothing happened, and the following day seemed to pass just like usual.

But in the evening the family received an unexpected visit. It was their son’s boss, who had come to inform them that their son had a terrible accident at work and lost his life. As he was well loved by his friends and co-workers, they all gave some money and raised 20000 pounds for the grieving family.

Some days after the funeral, mad with grief, the man’s wife demanded him to ask the monkey paw for the second wish: “Bring my son back to me!”

A few hours later they heard strong knocks on the door.

As his wife ran to the door, the man, terrified of what might be waiting out there, asked for the last wish, to cancel his second wish, and so as the door opened, there was nothing out there but the wailing wind.

After this little horror intro, dear readers, let’s say that you are holding South’s cards in your left hand, and the Monkey’s Paw in your right hand:

Dealer North, E-W Vulnerable

Your partner liked his hand a bit too much and upgraded it to a 3♥ overbid. You asked aces and went to slam.

West lead the ♦Q and you took the ♦A, then stopped to count losers from hand: 1 Spade, 1 or 2 Hearts and 2 Diamonds.

The diamonds could be ruffed in dummy, the Spades could be thrown on the Clubs and the ♥K could be finessed.

Holding the monkey’s paw, you finally decided to make use of it and said:

“I wish for the Heart finesse to succeed”, and asked for a low Heart from dummy at trick 2.

And sure enough, your wish got granted right away as the ♥K immediately appeared in East.

You happily won the ♥A, ruffed a Diamond, returned to hand with the ♥Q (East discarded a Spade), ruffed your last Diamond with your last trump in dummy, returned to hand via the ♣Q, cashed the ♥J, and now… You are stuck: If you play your last Heart – West will get the ♥10 and opponents will take 2 more Diamond tricks. So, you continued playing your Clubs instead.

But West ruffed your third Club, played his last Diamond, and you had to ruff and lose a Spade trick for 1 down.

You were pleased to see that Spade finesse didn’t work, so choosing to finesse Spades instead would not have saved you.

But was there anything else you could have done?

Yes!

First, be more specific with the monkey’s paw: When you ask for something – be clear! You could have asked for the Heart finesse to succeed and for Hearts to split 3-2. That would have gotten you 13 tricks.

Second, when you ask a wish from the monkey’s paw, you should expect things to go wrong. Seeing the ♥K fall at trick 2 should indicate that Hearts break badly and that you still have a Heart loser. So, play carefully, and you can make it: Allow the ♥K to win the trick!

Win the Spade return from East with your ♠A, ruff a Diamond, return to hand via the ♣Q, ruff you last Diamond, and play your last Heart from dummy to your remaining ♥AQJ in hand, collecting the remaining trumps from West. You can continue with Clubs now and discard your ♠QJ on them. You made 12 tricks, despite the monkey’s paw curse and an unfavorable Heart break: 3 Hearts, 1 Spade, 1 Diamond, 2 Diamond ruffs and 5 Clubs.

Wanna bet?

George and Benny are good friends and Bridge partners. They also like to bet on all sorts of stuff (small bets, not heavy money) .

They bet on almost anything: lottery, backgammon, football and other sports etc., but also on everything they disagree about. First they argue until one of them drops the ultimate challenge: “Wanna bet on it?” They decide the amount, and they agree on an “authority” to rule who wins the bet. 

Bridge is usually not something they would bet on (although there were some occasions when they argued and then asked an expert’s opinion, not before betting on it). 

And today came an unusual bet: even though none of them was certain on what the right answer should be, George decided that there must be one. This was during a bridge game. They fought about a hand and George felt it “smelled” like a hand with a solution. What solution? He didn’t know either, but wanna bet there is one?

Benny insisted: “Shall we bet on it? I’m sure the hand cannot be made with proper defense”

Since there was an expert in the house, George accepted: “Fine, it’s a bet” (100 bucks it was this time, a lot more than their usual stake): 

Dealer South, E-W Vulnerable:

West lead the ♦A and continued with another Diamond. Benny ruffed and played the ♠K. West won the ♠A and played a Heart to East’s ♥A. East continued with the ♦K.

The contract now is bound to fail, as the ♠10 makes a trick no matter if Benny ruffs low (West over ruffs with the ♠10) or high (West discards, and the ♠10 gets promoted) . 

“Why didn’t you discard a Heart at trick 2? That way you cut the communication between defenders”, said George. 

“Can’t you see it makes no difference?”, Benny was boiling, face all red. He continued: “If I discard a Heart, East wins with the ♦Q, continues with a 3rd Diamond, and again the ♠10 gets promoted.

If I ruff low – West overruffs with the ♠10, and if I ruff high – West discards, and again,  I can no longer avoid losing two Spade tricks. I bet this hand cannot be made on a proper defense!”

George took the bet and so they turned to the expert, who said: “The contract is makeable all right: ruff a 2ndDiamond, then ruff a Club (!) in dummy at trick 3. Continue with a 3rd Diamond and discard your Heart loser at trick 4.

East wins with the ♦K but he has no more Diamonds to play, and declarer has all the time in the world to ruff a Club or a Heart from East then play the ♠K, losing only the ♠A and 2 Diamond tricks. And you can pull out the remaining ♠10x later”.

George was happy with his $100 winning. Knowing his friend just too well, seeing Benny’s rage, he saw another opportunity to make “extras”, so he pushed on without mercy: “Why didn’t you open 2♣ with 9 sure tricks?”

Benny’s face turned incandescent: “And how do you suggest I describe my hand after that..?”… A flurry of angry words and then came the inevitable challenge: “Wanna bet?”…

1 IMP Away

Moses returned home in a bad mood.

“What happened?”, asked his wife.

“Did it ever happen to you, that you did an absolutely perfect thing, and you were so proud of yourself… only to find out someone else did better?”

“Too many times: When I scored 99 at Math in high school but Norma got 100; When I followed a killer diet but Silvia still had slimmer waist; When I baked a huge birthday cake for our Georgie’s birthday, but Jamie’s mother baked a bigger one; or when I brought you home to meet my Mom for the first time , but my sister brought Oliver home the same day..”, she added with a wink, trying to cheer him up.

But Moses was not really listening , still absorbed in his thoughts.

“So… What happened? “, she asked again.
“At the teams contest today, I played a slam in Club in a most brilliant way, and yet, at the other table our opponents got a better score and didn’t even make a big effort for it…”

Dealer South, none Vulnerable

“At the KO stage we got knocked out, losing the match by 1 IMP. This was the final board.

West led the ♦K against 6♣. I played the ♦A but East ruffed and played a Spade.

Now I have a dilemma: There are still two more Clubs out, including the ♣K. So… Should I try to finesse West, or should I play the Ace to drop a stiff King?

After some thoughts, I managed to solve this issue in a most scientific brilliant way: I won trick 2 with the ♠A, dropping the ♠K from dummy, and continued with the ♠QJ, discarding the ♥AQ from dummy! Note that this play carries no risk whatsoever, as if West ruffs – I overruff in dummy, while East is marked with plenty of Spades after showing a Diamond void. West followed to on the first 2 rounds of Spades and discarded a Diamond on the 3rd round of Spades.

Now I played my ♥KJ10 from hand, and again this move is completely safe as if West ruffs – I overruff in dummy.

West followed to 2 Hearts and discarded another Diamond on the 3rd round of Hearts. At this point West’s hand is fully counted! He had 8 Diamonds, 2 Spades, 2 Hearts and therefore 1 Club.

And so I played my ♣A next, dropping East’s remaining bare ♣K, and got 920 points for making my contract”.

“Well done to you, my dear husband! I’m so proud of you. Next time we go to my Mom – I’ll tell her about your brilliant play and will also say that, in my opinion, Oliver would never have found such a solution.

So… What happened at the other table?”, asked his wife, amused at her last remark and at her husband’s overreaction.

But Moses couldn’t see the humor: “At the other table North bid 6NT, making his contract with no pain, he just gave the ♣K. Score 990 for making and 2 IMPs away for this hand for the 70 points gap.

You see? – Without this board we would have won the match by 1 IMP and qualify for the next stage”…

Outside the box

George and Dafna are a couple. They are the opposite of each other.

George is an accountant: well organized, responsible, punctual and seeking a safe, stable life.

Dafna is a circus artist and she likes to live on the edge. She is messy, spontaneous and tries to think outside the box.

Their life is good and balanced because they have each other. In fact they really need each other.

In Bridge however, things are often not falling into place... It depends on which one on them gets which hand.

"In Bridge there are strict and clear rules! When I lead a suit - Return my lead, especially if I lead a low card to indicate I have length and an honor", insisted George.

"Yes dear, I shall do that... Unless I find a better card to play", said Dafna with grace, and gave him a kiss.

Here is a recent deal they played. Too bad their hands were not reversed...

Dealer South - All Vulnerable

Dafna, sitting West, led the ♦2. George seemed pleased with the lead. However, when declarer asked for a low card from dummy, he thought for a while, then he won the ♦A and returned, without any further thought, another Diamond, throwing his partner a look as if to tell her: "You see? A good partner always returns his partner's lead".

Declarer won the trick with the ♦K and played on Clubs.

George won the ♣A on the second round and played a third Diamond, but declarer won again with the ♦Q and claimed 9 tricks: 1 Spade, 3 Hearts, 2 Diamonds and 3 Clubs.

"I was hoping to find you with the ♦Q, helping you to establish 2 more tricks in the suit. Nothing to do here, we played good standard defense which didn’t work", said George on a serious tone.

"Why didn't you play the ♠K at trick 2? That is what I would do", said Dafna adding a loving smile to her statement.

" The ♠K?? Without holding the ♠Q in my hand? To dummy's long suit headed by the ♠A?? But that is against all the rules", responded George with disgust.

"My dear, please think a bit outside the box, what's with this tunnel vision? What kind of an accountant are you? Count! South showed 5 Hears, 4 Clubs and a Diamond stopper for his 3NT bid, after 3 suits were mentioned. He therefore most likely has at least ♦QXX or ♦Jxxx for that bid, as you have the ♦A and dummy has the ♦K. That leaves him with at most 1 Spade. Playing the ♠K guarantees you to establish 3 Spade tricks, as you also hold the ♠7, guarding against the possibility of South holding the stiff ♠Q, as it happens here. Playing the ♠K will crash declarer's ♠Q, and your ♣A will be an entry to the 3 high Spades in your hand. But I still love you, even if we could have set this", said Dafna and blew him another loving kiss from the other side of the table.

George tried to maintain his serious look, but a weak smile escaped his lips. He was so fortunate to have such a partner, in Bridge and in life.

Aces are the best!

Emma has an issue with aces. She does not quite like them. She once declared out loud: "Empty aces are useless. Each ace is only 1 trick".

And from that moment, the aces kept haunting her:

"Show more respect to your aces! They are the best cards", said her partner visibly outraged.
"They are indeed the best, since Jokers are not around", confirmed her husband with a smile.

"Don’t look at an ace as if it's worth just one trick. It's often worth much more: It upgrades the cards you have in that suit by one rank: a King is now equal to the ace, if you have that ace. The Q is equal to the K, if you have all three, and so on..." advised her teacher.

But all these talks didn’t help. She always seemed to do the wrong thing, even on defense:

"Why did you lead the Ace if you didn't have the K?", shouted her partner and went on:

"You just promoted declarer's King. Lead passive and later on, when he plays his King – you take it with your Ace."

Emma tries to justify her move:

"I wanted to see the dummy...".

Her partner got even angrier: "And if you make a passive lead– you think you won't see dummy?"... he yelled so loud that everyone in the club could hear.

She went to her teacher, who confirmed her partner's words and also gave her a piece of advice:

"Aces are very valuable cards. They are not there just to win a trick for you. They are also there to capture valuable cards from the opponents. Therefore, in most cases, try to avoid leading an unprotected Ace. Wait with it until you can cover an honor from declarer".

Next time they played, this deal arrived:

Dealer North - None Vulnerable

There cannot be a more obvious lead than the ♣J ... a 5-card suiter, top of sequence and 2 Aces as entries to establish her long suit.

So she lead the ♣J and declarer claimed 9 tricks the moment he saw dummy:

"I get 2 Clubs and 7 Diamonds. The rest is yours", he said with a smile, folded the cards back into the board and wrote the score.

Partner was yelling as usual and Emma, still holding her cards in hand, was shocked at what she was hearing this time... just fractions of words among loud shouting

"Lead an ace?... but I don't have the King...", she heard herself responding.

Declarer came to her rescue to cool the spirits:

"When the bidding suggests that declarer has a long solid suit, and based his bid on FAST tricks (cashing his long and solid suit), you need to try an ACTIVE lead. An Ace, in other words. In these situations it often happens that declarer has a hole, an exposed suit, and leading the ace might help you find that hole. Say you lead the ♥A. Partner can discourage by signaling with the ♥2. Try the ♠A next to see him encouraging with his ♠9. A Spade continuation from you – and you take the first 6 tricks on defense. Same as defending against a gambing 3NT opening, or if one of your opponents bids a side suit which seem solid enough for them to pull trumps and discard all their losers on it. For instance:



Lead a black Ace here to find your black tricks before declarer pulls trump and parks all his black losers on the good Diamond suit".

Then he turned to Emma's partner:

"Even if you are correct in what you are saying, it is wrong to bring it up the way you do. Scaring your partner will not make her better. Pay attention to how you discuss what went wrong, and you will see your partnership improving much faster".

Vision

Tim and Edith have been married for 30 years. They met through Sports, they were both long distance runners. Although they have similar personalities and they are both extremely competitive, this was never a problem in their marriage. Quite on the contrary – they shared the same goals and worked as a team to achieve them.

And then... they learned Bridge. And as wanting to excel was deeply rooted in their character – they found themselves arguing and accusing each other when things went wrong at the bridge table. That brought a bitter taste to their relationship. They wanted Bridge to be a shared passion, an activity they would enjoy together, as a team. They both loved the game, but... they also loved each other... And so they decided to play with different partners. That way they could still go play at the club together, discuss the hands, compete with each other and still enjoy the game.

Today they both played very well on this hand: Tim was West, defending, and Edith was South as declarer.

Dealer South, North - South Vulnerable

Tim, sitting West, lead the ♠6. Declarer took with the ♠A, played ♣AK, ruffed a third Club in dummy and then played a Heart to the ♥J.

Tim paused to think: He then saw the possibility of locking declarer in dummy and promoting his ♥10. So he ducked this trick and allowed South to win with the ♥J.

Declarer continued with the ♥K. Tim won with his ♥A and played his second Spade. Declarer won with the ♠K but now he had no entry to hand to pull West's last trump. He then tried a Diamond – but East took the ♦A and played a third Spade. Declarer is in trouble now.

No matter what he does – the ♥10 will make a trick: If he ruffs low – West overruffs. If he ruffs with the ♥Q – West discards and the ♥10 is good. If he throws a Diamond – West, too, discards a Diamond and East continues with a fourth Spade to promote the ♥10.

Tim was very pleased with his defense and thought there was a good chance to finish first in today's tourney. At the end he went with his partner to see the scores. Edith was already standing by the board with her partner.

Tim was a little disappointed. They were in second place after the couple he just set in 4♥ (Edith was in third). But he got over it quickly and said to his partner (loud enough so that Edith could hear too):

"Well, did we set the winning pair in 4♥? YES, we did! And did we score better than my wife? Yes, we did! So... I'm happy".

Edith didn't remain silent: "Which 4♥ did you set? The cold, unbeatable 4♥?" After 2 seconds it was clear they were indeed talking about the same hand:

"You wouldn't manage to set me. I also got a spade lead, but I used my bridge vision to foresee the threat of a trump promotion, in case trumps are 3-1. So I won the first trick with the ♠K in dummy, played ♣AK, ruffed a club, and played a heart to the ♥J. West tried to hold up once, like you did, and took his ♥A on the second round of hearts. He continued with another spade as you did, but I simply won it in hand and cashed his last trump. I lost only two Diamonds and the ♥A".

Seeing Tim's long face, Edith's partner piped in: "Come on, Tim, don't look so miserable. You are fortunate in real life too to have a wife with such a vision..."

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a married couple, where both are secretly contract killers belonging to competing agencies. Assassins at their job, normal family life at home...

So, what does that have to do with Bridge?

John and Shelly are a married couple who play Bridge together at their local Bridge Club. They are also taking a defense course which has greatly improved their partnership.

Our story begins on the following deal, on which our heroes are defenders. They were the only pair to set the contract:

Dealer South, All Vulnerable

"Ms. Smith" sitting West lead the ♥7 (all the other players in her seat lead a heart). East played the ♥J, South won with the ♥K and tried the ♠Q for a finesse. West followed with the ♠4. East took the ♠K and switched to the ♦J. That way, the defense won 4 Diamond tricks and a Spade.

At all the other tables East continued with another Heart at trick 3 and declarer made 9 tricks: 3 Spades, 3 Hearts and 3 Clubs. After all, the ♥7 lead could have been 4th best, for example from ♥AQ976, and then a Heart back would indeed be the only return to set. At the end of each tourney, the Director liked to choose an interesting hand from the tournament and discuss it after the game. For this tournament he picked this hand for the postmortem.

So he prepared another hand, as below:

On this hand that he prepared, after the ♥7 lead – the only way to set is to play back a Heart, Partner's suit, at trick 3 – The "normal" defense.

Then he showed the hand played in the tournament and invited "Mr Smith" to explain how he found he killing Diamond switch instead of continuing Hearts, like everyone else did.

John explained:
"My wife and I are attending an excellent Bridge class that improved our defense enormously. In one of the lessons on defense we learned about Smith Echo, and that's what we used here, on this hand. Smith Echo means giving a signal to your partner to show them whether you like their lead or not. The signal is given at TRICK 2, after declarer is playing his suit, and only if it is not essential to give count. Defenders signal to each other information about the opening lead: a high card shows interest and encourages partner to keep returning that suit. A low card shows no high cards or a bad suit and suggests a switch. (Dear readers – you can agree with your partner to signal the other way around if you prefer: play a LOW card to encourage and a high card to suggest a change of suit.) So, as my wife played the ♠4 at trick 2, her lowest Spade, I knew she didn't like hearts much and wanted a switch. So I looked at dummy – playing on Diamonds was easy. If her Heart suit was ♥AQ976, she would follow with her ♠9 at trick 2 and I would return a Heart next", he completed his explanation.

One of the players, who had never heard of Smith Echo before, shouted with admiration: "Contract killers!!!", intending to compliment the couple for their nice defense.

However... from that moment on, the whole club started calling them "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", even though they really disliked their new nickname.

Open Cards

Naomi knew everything about the Champion. He was her hero. She read all his books and knew about all his world wide winnings.

That is why she was thrilled when she heard that he was invited to the Bridge Festival in her City.

"Can you believe it?? He is coming here and I will finally see him face to face. I wonder how he is... you know, as a person", she said to her partner, excited.

Her partner was not at all that excited "Probably he looks like an alien... you know, like these 'lost' brilliant professors who know all about their subject, but nothing about real life. OR maybe he is like the champion of our club, looking down at other players, insulting everyone and putting them down so that they realize they know nothing", said her partner.

Her partner was always skeptical like that. But Naomi was not discouraged:

"No! He is not like that! I'm sure of it. I can feel it from the way he writes: so clear, so full of humor. He can't be anything like what you say".

But... Doubts did approach her heart: Maybe her partner was right. How 'normal' can a real world champion be?

The day has come. Naomi and her partner joined the Pairs Tourney at the Festival. And she saw Him, the Champion himself. But she didn't dare to approach him. He was surrounded by other famous players and she felt like a complete outsider.

And then, while playing the tourney, she happened to be in the same section he played... And finally it was her turn to move to his table, playing against him! She was full of excitement, fear and emotion. She took her seat quietly, trying to hide her emotions.

The champion shook her hand and her partner's and introduced himself politely. He spoke softly, and seemed calm and humble. Nothing like what her partner described.

On the hand below he "guessed" all the missing cards and played the hand as if all the cards were in the open (Dear readers, I challenge you!! Can you make 4♠ here with all cards in view? Give it a try before reading further.)

Dealer East - None vulnerable:


After a quiet start, the bidding came to life till it ended with 4♠ doubled. Naomi, sitting East, held these heavy spades and her Partner promised something too, after all he did bid 2♥ freely... Wouldn’t that be something – To set the Champion, doubled? That would be a story to tell and a memory for lifetime.

She overcame her fear and dared to double the champion's 4♠. Her partner lead the ♥9. The champion turned to her and asked her politely about their leading agreements.

She answered: 9 means top of nothing.

The champion said nothing more. He just thought for 2 whole minutes ("Woww, the champion is thinking against me", she thought with a thrill).

Then he asked for the ♥A, ruffed a heart. Played ♦AKQ, finessed to the ♣Q. He ruffed the third heart, played a club to the Ace. Ruffed the fourth heart, and then played a spade from hand.

This was the situation:


Naomi's partner played the ♠K, and Naomi, stripped to spades only, followed with the ♠9. West continued with the ♦J, and the champion discarded a club from dummy. Naomi was forced to ruff her partner's winner and play a spade back. Thus, the ♠Q became the champion's 10th trick.

Naomi couldn't resist asking: "How did you guess the position of all the cards?".

The champion smiled: "I didn't really guess. It was a combination of listening to the bidding and seeing the lead. After that, it is like playing with open cards.

Since your partner showed no heart values, it was clear that the ♥KQ were in your hand. Also your both doubles suggest that spades split 4-1. However, since you were a passed hand, you can't have the ♠AK. With ♠AK, and ♥KQ you would have opened the bidding.
That means that your partner must have a singleton ♠A or ♠K and the ♣K too. Bidding also suggested that hearts are 4-4, and that you are short in clubs with diamond tolerance, from your take out double.

That's it, really, I hope I explained it clear", he said, trying to sound as modest as possible about his brilliant analysis and performance on this hand.

"Yes, absolutely... I ehhh....", Naomi began to say something, but she choked with emotion. She sat there quietly while the champion was giving her full attention, waiting for her to calm down and finish her phrase.

Her partner came to the rescue: "This is Naomi, my best friend. Do you realize you are her hero? She read all your books, she followed all your victories. She wanted to meet you in person for a long time. And today she came to play here especially to see you", he said with a naughty smile.

Naomi blushed and so did the champion. Now it was his turn to lose his words. It took him some time before he finally said:

"Thank you so much, Naomi".

A metaphor

Jake and Gina have been married for 50 years.

Since forever they have been doing everything together: work, house chores, raising a family and... of course, play Bridge together. Ever since they learned to play, they always played together as partners and never ever had any fights over bridge (when they got a bad score, they always tried to analyze what went wrong in order to improve their play, and never hesitated to take the blame when they realized one of them made a mistake).

"Don't you realize couples should never play together?", they got asked every now and then.

"Nonsense! It's just a game", would answer Jake. "It's a joy for me to partner my loved one at bridge too", said Gina.

When their kids grew up (a son and a daughter) – they taught them how to play, and played at home once a week.

When the children got married and had kids themselves – they also taught their grandchildren how to play.

The tradition of a competitive game of Bridge once a week at Jake and Gina's home was kept over the years, and the number of tables in play kept growing, as the family grew.

For today's game, they had their daughter and her husband, their son and his wife, and their four grandchildren for the weekly bridge. Jake played with Gina (as always), the daughter played with their son's wife, the son with their daughter's husband, two grandsons partnered each other, and their two granddaughters formed another pair.

During the play, the youngest grandson (7 years old) asked out loud: "Grandpa, how come you chose grandma? It's clear that she's the right one for you, since you're always together, even at bridge!"

All ears where turned to their table to hear the answer...

"I'll answer you question with a question: The king wanted his son, the prince, to get married. Many wanted to marry the prince but in the end only three remained: a blonde, daughter of a rich businessman, a brunette, daughter of a successful doctor, and a redhead, daughter of a priest. So... which one did he choose?", asked Jake.

Many different answers were offered from all three tables, as each bet on another answer.

"And what do you think, my grandson?"

"I think he married the most beautiful one", answered the grandson.

"Right! You are so clever", Jake complimented him with a smile.

For the hand below, Gina was the only one who managed to make the contract:

Dealer South - All vulnerable:


6NT was easy to reach, and the lead at all three tables was the ♠J. At the other two tables, declarer won the lead, played ♣QJ, went to dummy with the ♦Q, pulled the ♣AK and tried to establish the Diamonds. But East won the 4th Diamond and cashed the 5th Club for down one. The Heart finesse doesn’t work here either.

Gina started the same way by winning ♣QJ. But then she made the move which guaranteed her success: She ducked a Diamond! East won, but Gina made the rest of the tricks: the ♦Q was an entry to the ♣AK, and the Diamond suit is high now: 4 Diamonds, 4 Clubs, 3 Spades and 1 Heart.

"Is it true? Did grandpa really choose you because you were the most beautiful?", asked the young grandchild.

"No. There were plenty more beautiful girls around. I think he chose me because of other reasons. Using the word 'beautiful' is just a metaphor, dear", said Gina.

"What's a metaphor?", he asked.

"A metaphor is sort of an image, giving one thing as an example to make a point of something similar. It's like a fable. You understand?".

"Sure! Now I get it. He chose you because you were the best Bridge player around", he shouted, and everyone laughed out loud...

11 tricks off the top

Dear readers, today's story is a perfect example that Bridge is a game of common sense and not just dry rules.

Before a teams tournament a player said to his partner: "Pay attention to my signals! Rule says lead our 4th best card from a suit with an honor. The card we lead is important to me, as it tells a lot about the length of partner's suit. For example, if I lead the 2 it should be clear to you that I have a suit with only 4 cards: The 2 is the 4th, so there are 3 cards above it, and... none below it. So, if I have more than 4 cards in that suit I will lead the 4th card, and later on will play a lower card to show you that my suit is longer. In other words, if I lead the 3 and later on play the 2 – I am showing you that I have a 5 suiter headed by an honor. Clear?!"

His partner responded: "Well, I look at carding only when it's needed, and signal only when it's necessary, and only what I judge my partner needs to be signaled. Otherwise I just use common sense, as Bridge is a great game of thinking".

The other player did not agree at all and insisted to follow the rule at all times. The two argued for quite a bit until the game started, and no agreement was reached about how they will be signaling.

And then came this hand, where they lost 16 IMPs:

Dealer South - North - South vulnerable:


At both tables, the bidding went exactly the same, with South opening 1NT on that semi balanced hand. At both tables the lead was the ♥3, 4th best.

At "our" table, the "common sense" player won the lead with his ♥A when declarer tried the ♥K. He then played the ♥Q, on which the "rule" player followed with the ♥2 to show (with a huge victory smile) that he lead from a 5 suiter.

And now what?

No more Hearts in hand, Diamonds are not an option, and dummy's black suits look just the same. Which suit to continue?

With no clear preference he looked at his partners 2nd card in the hope that it will signal suit preference, as he thought it should, since showing length of the heart suit meant nothing now when he had no more Hearts to play. And so, seeing the ♥2 card still on the table, he continued with a Club, thinking the ♥2 is a clear preference to the lower ranking suit.

The surprised declarer almost fell off his chair when he saw the club switch and immediately claimed 11 tricks off the top: 5 Clubs and 6 Diamonds: 3NT + 2 = 660.

What happened at the other table, you wonder?

11 tricks where cashed off the top there as well, but with a slight difference: On the ♥Q, West followed with the ♥9! East had no problems taking the ♥9 as suit preference to Spade and continued with a Spade at trick 3. West won the ♠A when declarer tried the ♠K. He then cashed his ♥J82 and continued with the ♠Q, followed by the ♠10 which East overtook with the ♠J and cashed the rest of his top Spades: 5 Hearts and 6 Spades = 11 tricks off the top! 3NT – 7 = -700. And a total swing of 1360 points which cost their team 16 IMPs.

"I still think my play was correct", insisted the rule player.

"Yeah, sure... Like the doctor said: The operation I performed was a great success, too bad the patient died...", responded his partner with a bitter tone and added:

"Or if you prefer «Amazing brain surgery, Doctor, but your patient came with a heart attack...» In other words partner, when you signal - signal what's important for me to know".

The Robbers

Jane is playing at the club with her teacher today.

The teacher insists to teach her to play by the rules and he also worked nicely with her on partnership defense.

Before they moved to the last round, she pointed her finger at the couple they were about to play against and said to her teacher: "Against these two, I hate most to play. They don’t bid according to the rules and always rob me of my games. And the most annoying thing is that their moves always work for them, at least when they play against me".

Her teacher responded: "Don't get over excited. Remember you can always double them if you feel they went wild. Check the vulnerability and look carefully at your hand to decide whether it is worth punishing them based on your partner's bids and your own hand." And indeed, the opponents did not "disappoint":

Dealer West - North-South vulnerable:


Jane thought for a long time before she bid 5♦. Again, she had the familiar feeling that these opponents are trying to rob her. She was quite certain that her teacher's 3NT bid showed a good hand with Heart stoppers (though she wasn’t entirely sure how strong he was with such a bid). Also her hand was pretty good. So... how come her opponents find themselves in 4♥ so fast?

She remembered her teacher's advice to double them if she feels they try to rob her game again. But then his other advice was to look at the vulnerability: "We are vulnerable, and they are not. My hand is too offensive to double them and I feel I have a great chance to make 5♦", she thought and bid 5♦.

West lead the ♠2.

Jane looked at the lead: "After all this 'noise' of bidding 4♥, why a spade lead?", she thought to herself. "Maybe he has a singleton", she kept thinking.

After few more seconds of thought and counting her two losers, one in Club and one in Diamond she decided... there is nothing to think about... She must pull trumps and establish her Clubs, no other way to make.

Therefore she asked for a low Spade from dummy, won with her ♠A when East covered with the ♠Q and played a Diamond. East won it with the ♦A, played back a Spade for West to ruff and later on opponents won the ♣A to set her 1 down.

Jane was very upset. "I got robbed again by these two. 3NT is ice cold. I could double them but then I thought I have a good chance to make. And I would have made it, had they not gotten that Spade ruff. I'm so frustrated!", she was on the verge of tears.

Her teacher tried to calm her down: "What can I say... They are allowed to bid like this and be wild if they feel like it. It's not against the rules. 4♥ goes 2 down as we get 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 1 Club and 1 Diamond.

However... You can make 5♦! Simply win the lead with the ♠K in dummy, continue with the ♥A and discard your ♠A on it! Now you can safely play a Diamond and when East takes the ♦A and plays back Spade – Just ruff it high in hand, pull the rest of the trumps, and claim 11 tricks".

Jane felt even more miserable: "SIMPLY? It’s not at all simple for me".

200 km per hour

On Sunday morning Bill left home very early. Actually, it was 4AM, and it was still night outside. He was heading to a Bridge tourney in another village, about 160 kilometers from where he lived. The village was celebrating 100 years of existence with, among other festivities, a big Bridge tournament which was to begin at 9AM.

So... why did he leave so early, you may ask (his wife asked that too). Well, Bill owned a very old car (a 1959 model), and any speed over 60 km per hour was a real menace for the car's well being (it could go at most 70... downhill).

"That car is almost as old as you are! Time to replace it!", his wife said often.

"It is Not! We got it from my parents as a wedding gift. You are almost as old as I am. Maybe I should replace you!", he used to shout back.

And so today he was careful to take his time, planning to drive slowly, take a few breaks along the way, and still arrive to the event royally on time.

But even though he was driving so cautiously, the car stopped abruptly in the middle of nowhere, as if to say: "That's it, no more!".

Bill had no choice but to sit out there, watching the sun rise and waiting for a car to pass by. After almost 2 hours of waiting, a white beautiful new Mercedes showed up and stopped next to him.

"You need a ride, old man?", offered the Mercedes driver.

"Would it be ok if I tie my car to yours and you pull me? I'm very fond of my car and I don’t want to just leave it here. Here, I have a towing cable in my trunk. I knew this unfortunate day will come, but I wasn't expecting it to be today.... Will you please do me this favor?".

The driver felt sorry for Bill, and agreed to pull his car.

"One more thing: You can't go fast or it will break down. No more than 50 kilometers per hour, please", added Bill.

"You must be joking. This baby is faster than 50 even when it's parked!", he laughed loudly at his own joke and continued: "But you know what, if I drive too fast, just honk your horn, and I'll slow down, OK?".

"Agreed! Thanks so much!", Bill was pleased.

And so, they started to drive. Every now and then Bill honked, and the Mercedes driver slowed down.

All of a sudden a black BMW appeared out of nowhere and overtook them at lightning speed. The Mercedes driver managed to see the other driver, who was no other than his wife! Rather pissed at her nerve, he started racing after her. The BMW went faster and so did the Mercedes right behind it. A police patrol on the side of the road saw with amazement three cars racing one after another at no less than 200 kilometers per hour!

As the police car wasn't fast enough, the officer announced headquarters, and a police blockade was formed quickly just outside the village Bill was heading to. The drivers were stopped for investigation and when the police officer came to face pale Bill, he noticed Bill was in shock. Bill couldn't move nor talk. Looking at his ID, the police officer said:

"So, Bill. 200 kilometers per hour is not fast enough for you, is it? You had to honk your horn like mad too? May I ask what was so urgent to drive on a Sunday morning at this speed?".

Bill finally managed to open his mouth and all he could mutter was:
"Well, I was in a hurry for the Bridge tourney in the village".

The officer looked at his watch: "Oh my God! It starts in 5 minutes. I'd better drive you over there so that you are not late!".

Bill's partner was not at all happy to see him there at the very last minute. "I thought you said you'll leave home early to be on time. How slow did you go this time to arrive so late?", he asked bitterly.

"About as slow as 200 per hour", said Bill still shaking from the shock.

This hand, against the Village champion, reminded him of the mad race he had just been through:

Dealer East - North-South vulnerable:


Partner's jump to 6♦ seem like accelerating from 0 to 200 in 2 seconds to him. And so he honked his horn and bid 6♥ ("I must be losing my mind", he thought).

East led the ♠2. Declarer had 11 top tricks. Assuming West had the ♦A and no more spades to play, he saw it would be possible to establish a Diamond trick. But he had transportation problems: He had 1 entry to dummy to play the ♦K , but no other entry to cash the ♦Q.

Given that he managed to survive the surreal events in the morning, he made up his mind and decided not to lose hope and battle it to the end: He won the lead with the ♠A and pulled 6 rounds of Hearts. Then he played ♣AK and a Club to the ♣Q. He was hoping West will have only diamonds left. But West won the ♦K with the ♦A (Bill discarded a spade) and played another Club. Bill had to ruff and concede the last Spade to East.

The Village champion was amused: "Trouble reaching dummy? Imagine that you are stuck and you want dummy to get you out of trouble. So what do you do? You use me as a rope! In other words use me to help you enter dummy: After pulling trumps, play ♣A and then a low club to the ♣J. Now play the ♦K and discard the ♣K from hand! I'll get the trick with the ♦A but now whether I play club or diamond – I will get you to dummy and you can discard your 2 spade losers on those Q's".

A nerve wrecking day for poor Bill who was used to a slow, quiet life.

The odd couple

In my club there are players from 9 years old till over 90, men and women, religious and non religious, politically right and left, rich and poor, professors and judges but also players who didn't finish high school. All playing in perfect harmony. And where else will you find so many different types of people sitting at the same table, spending 3 hours together?

For example these two players who have been partners for at least 10 years: Esther is 60 and she is a fashion designer. She looks no more than 40 years old (after a few plastic surgeries in several areas...). She is very attractive, she has a lovely figure, and she dresses very colorful (you will never see her wearing the same clothes twice). She is very energetic and she is involved in most of the big social events in the city.

Her partner, Joseph, is an accountant. He is 50, but looks 70. He is single, overweight, and always wears the same overly short t-shirt.

While Joseph is quiet and has no sense of humor whatsoever, Esther is chatty and lively enough for both of them.

"Are you really 60?", she got asked once.
"Only parts of me...", she winked, alluding to the (few) parts of her body that weren't touched yet by the doctors.

When asked about her long lasting partnership with Joseph, who is so different from her, she would say: "With him it's a 'catholic wedding'. I'm a lot more faithful to him than I was to my 3 ex-husbands. By the way, he is the only man I have ever met who only showed interest in my brains, and not other parts of my body..."

And here is a an example of wonderful co-operation on defense, emphasizing their partnership chemistry:

Dealer West - All vulnerable:


Joseph, sitting West, lead the ♠A and Esther followed with the ♠Q.

That card helped him understand that she also holds the ♠J and so he continued with a low Spade at trick 2. Esther won the ♠J and continued with a 3rd Spade to Joseph's ♠K.

He paused for few seconds to count points: Declarer's 2♥ bid suggested 9-11 points, dummy had 14 and he had 12. That leaves 2-4 points for his partner, of which he already saw the ♠QJ.

Therefore the ♣A must be with declarer (also, if Esther had the ♣A, she would likely play it after winning the ♠J and before continuing with the 3rd Spade) along with the ♥K and the ♦Q.

That means that the only chance left to set is to try to promote a trump trick. Consequently, Joseph continued with his 4th Spade which Esther ruffed (without a blink) with the ♥10. Declarer over ruffed with his ♥K but Joseph's ♥J got promoted now, no matter how declarer plays the Hearts.
They were the only ones to set that "10 tricks off the top" 4♥ contract.

"Since you're such a great fashion designer, perhaps you could design a normal shirt for your partner to wear?", hissed a frustrated declarer.

"That would be a challenge! He'd need to lose a few kilos just to enter a regular XXL. However, I have no plans to redesign anything about him. Our tacit mutual understanding is that we communicate with each other purely through cards".

Couple Therapy

When a married couple has problems in their marriage – they go to couple's therapy.

John and Barbara are not married. They are not even a couple. They are just Bridge partners, who have been playing together for a long time. Well... long time in total. They took many breaks over time, when they stopped playing together after harsh arguments and after "divorces" so vocal that everyone in the club knew they had sworn to never play together again. Each time this happened, they were so hostile to one another that they didn’t even say hello.

But after some time, after they managed to get into fights and arguments with every other partner I tried to match them with, they always got back to playing together.

"How come they are together again?" people would ask me. "I did couple therapy with them," I'd say without batting an eye.

"You think it will hold?", asked the skeptic ones (which were about everyone...).

“Absolutely!" I'd answer, looking straight into their eyes. "I even got a wedding invite from them..."

As both of them always looked for mistakes in their partner's play, and commented all the time (often wrong analysis), nobody wanted to play with them, which was the real reason they kept going back to playing together.

And so, here is the hand that caused their final divorce.

Barbara managed to produce a fabulous defense, and John, with incredible talent... totally ruined it:

Dealer North - None vulnerable:


John lead the ♥10 (which, according their agreement is top of sequence or two higher honors, so he has either 109xxx or AJ10xx).

Declarer won with the ♥Q in dummy and asked for the ♣Q. To her surprise, Barbara's ♣K won the trick.

Counting points, she concluded that since dummy has 14 points, she has 10 and declarer has 10-11, her partner should have around 5 points, 4 of which consist in the ♣A (else declarer would not let her win the King).

Therefore, the ♥10 lead was from top of sequence, as there is no room for the ♥AJ in his hand. That means 2 Club tricks are guaranteed, and in order to set 3NT, defense needs 3 Spade tricks. From the bidding it is obvious that declarer has exactly 4 Spades.

After some thought, Barbara found the only defense which sets: the ♠2!

John exploded: "What are you doing??!! Play spade to dummy's strength, and did you forget that declarer bid 1♠? You have no idea how to play this game!" he added with his typical vulgar tone.

I happened to be standing next to their table and I warned John (for the millionth time) to stop talking during the play, to stop being rude and actually... to stop talking at all.

The play continued:

Declarer won the spade trick cheaply with the ♠6, continued with Clubs, and John, upon winning the ♣A on the 3rd round, played back a... Heart.

This time it was Barbara's turn to burst: "You have no more spades to play? Play a spade, I win my ♠AQJ and set the contract. Why don't you continue my line of defense?"

I was called to the table once again and ruled 11 tricks for declarer.

And that was it. After this last fight, I fear there is no "couple therapy" that can save them...