It’s no coincidence that many card players excel at both bridge and poker. The poker legend Gus Hansen plays a mean game of bridge and regularly turns up at tournaments. The American bridge star Steve Weinstein is also a poker pro who goes by the name of ‘Thorladen’. The attributes needed for both games are
The news that two German doctors have been found guilty of cheating at the world bridge championships in Bali last year — by dint of some well-timed coughs — has made headlines around the world. In fact, no one on the international bridge scene is too surprised: Michael Elinescu (61) and Entscho Wladow (71) have
You’ve probably read about the English Bridge Union’s attempt to get bridge reclassified as a sport rather than a game — meaning that its members would no longer have to pay VAT on entry fees for competitions. Last month, a tax tribunal rejected the move on the grounds that ‘a sport normally connotes a game
The Night of the Stars charity bridge event, held in West London a couple of weeks ago, was every bit as fun as I’d hoped: 53 stars of the game mingled with — well, let us be known as the eclipses — for an evening’s duplicate. My partner wasn’t one of the official stars, but
To any player with even the smallest sadistic streak, squeezing your opponents is hugely satisfying. But there’s something even more enjoyable: pseudo-squeezing them. With a genuine squeeze, you make them squirm, but they can console themselves afterwards that there was nothing they could have done. That’s no fun. With a pseudo-squeeze, you get to see
A couple of Sundays ago, in London, Zia Mahmood and Demetri Marchessini held the first ever ‘Goulash Individual’ tournament. ‘Goulash’ deals involve wild distributions of suits — and the day was bizarre and fun in equal measure. Several superstars flew in to play, including 86-year-old Benito Garozzo, 13 times world champion, and 28-year-old Marion Michielsen,
I always find it impossible to sleep when I’ve played poorly, and last night just one sleeping pill was never going to be enough. Alas, I needed two to stop me agonising over my many mistakes during the weekend’s Lady Milne trials (for the women’s home internationals). Sally Brock and I didn’t manage to qualify,
Do you ever watch the greats playing bridge? And if you do, are you sometimes baffled, because instead of playing the obvious card, they do something that seems to be completely random? Of course, it never is random — it’s just that they are operating on a different plane from the rest of us. Not
What is the purpose of bidding? It’s how partners describe their hands to each other in order to reach the best contract. At least, that would be my answer — but I can already envisage the experts chuckling at my naivety. As any pro knows, describing your hand is just part of the story: almost
One of the most dramatic events of the Spanish American War was the sinking of the cargo ship Merrimac. Early in 1898, a bold plan was hatched by the US navy to rig the Merrimac with explosives, sail it into the narrow channel leading into Santiago harbour, then blow it up — thereby blocking the
Everyone over a certain age can remember the sense of shock that comes when policemen start looking like mere boys. Now I’m in my mid-forties, I get that kind of jolt quite frequently. It seems incredible to me that so many ‘authority’ figures in my life — my boss, my doctor, my lawyer, and so
Bridge is a great leveller: at some point, it makes fools of us all. As a result, it’s probably best to steer clear of any definitive pronouncements — ‘I couldn’t make the hand’, or ‘there was no way to beat it’ — as there’s almost always someone who can prove you wrong. Even experts end
It’s difficult for non-players to imagine the extent to which bridge hands can torment us. I’ve spent hours this week mulling over a fiendishly complicated slam, endlessly jotting down diagrams on bits of paper and snapping at my children whenever they interrupted my train of thought. I described it last time — it was played
The 2013 IBPA (International Bridge Press Association) Awards have just been published — and it’s no great surprise to see the name of the multi-world champion Fulvio Fantoni (formerly of Italy, now of Monaco) scooping ‘Declarer Play of the Year’. Cover up the EW hands and see whether you find the same solution (I certainly
This week I’m tackling one of the great unmentionable subjects of bridge: the fact that players so seldom go to the loo when they need to. We sit for long hours ignoring our bladders rather than risk missing a moment of the action. I’ve always assumed this was bad not just for the kidneys but
In any sport, a sense of elation is a dangerous thing. When a player does something good, he can’t afford to enjoy the moment: however dazzling the goal he’s scored or the ace he’s served, he can’t relax until the match is over. And so it is in bridge. It’s hard advice to follow: I’ve
I’m on the train back from the Brighton Congress, where I’ve been playing in the Swiss Pairs, and I’m still kicking myself over the very last deal of the tournament. There are few things more satisfying in bridge — well, in life actually — than squeezing an opponent, and I squandered a perfect opportunity. It
I haven’t played rubber bridge for a few years now (the demands of young children), but recently I’ve been hearing the siren call again — and decided to pop into my old haunt TGRs. I wanted to watch for a while, rather than play (I’m too rusty), and what great timing it turned out to
There was a particularly juicy deal during the recent European Open Mixed Teams in Ostend, which led to many pairs bidding and making a grand slam. My teammates, however, were prevented from reaching even a small slam when the Swedish player Peter Fredin made a devilish psychic bid against them. After two passes to him,
Zia Mahmood has never been the most punctual man — but I wonder whether he’ll ever be late for a bridge tournament again? He and his partner Jan Jansma were favourites to win the European Open Pairs in Ostend last week. In the final, they were neck-and-neck with the German player Sabine Auken and her
