BridgeSnaps - November 2007

November 2007

SURFING

I don’t shop much - Home Depot is about the only store I go to with any frequency. Well, not quite. I also go to the supermarket for Marian. (I can find what I want at Home Depot but only with great difficulty can I find what Marian wants at the supermarket). Otherwise I search the net for specific items such as ink cartridges for my printer. Sometimes I surf the net to find out what’s out there about bridge, especially bridge jokes. On an obscure site I found this list of dos and don’ts toward winning at rubber bridge.

1. Don’t concede large penalties.
2. Be wary of sacrificing, if you are going to lose the rubber, make it a small loss.
3. Do not bid 50% small slams, certainly if both are vulnerable (if you go down and the opponents win the next game, then they win the rubber!).
4. Grand slams should be 90+%.
5. Overtricks are unimportant.
6. Bid reasonable games; 40% not-vul is OK at rubber as the gain for getting vulnerable is very significant.
7. Unlike duplicate, it is rarely correct to sacrifice with favorable vulnerability - the opponents are still 3-1 favorites to win the rubber.
8. If you are about to change partners and your current partner is the worst player present, then get the rubber over with quickly.

LONELY NO MORE

Stranded on a deserted island for years, one day the man saw a beautiful woman in a wet suit coming out of the surf.

She unzips the right pocket of her wet suit and gives him a cigarette. “Wow, I haven‘t had a smoke in years.” he says.

Then she unzips the left pocket and gives him a flask of whiskey. “Enjoy”, she says, and he does.

Next she starts to unzip the long zipper down the front of the wet suit. “And here’s something you’ll enjoy even more“, she says.

And he retorts: “Don’t tell me you have a deck of cards in there too!!”

BridgeSnaps newsletter is produced by John S. Thomas, author of Standard American 21.