[fred]

Finding bridge a little boring these days? Here is a simple way you can add some excitement to your game...

The idea is, as declarer or as a defender, to try to reach end positions with unusual properties that have nothing to do with winning extra tricks. The one catch is that you can't intentionally win less tricks than were available in order to reach such an ending.

Here is a recent example of a rare and spectacular ending that was achieved by my partner in a recent game against robots on BBO. In order to see the ending, repeatedly click the "Next" button below the hand that appears when you click this link until you get to the end of trick 9:

Click to see rare and spectacular ending

If there are other crazy people like me who find such things amusing, I will post more examples in the future.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Trinidad]

Too bad the West bot couldn't be squeezed out of his ♦K.

Rik

[cloa513]

fred, on 2011-December-25, 19:08, said:

Finding bridge a little boring these days? Here is a simple way you can add some excitement to your game...

The idea is, as declarer or as a defender, to try to reach end positions with unusual properties that have nothing to do with winning extra tricks. The one catch is that you can't intentionally win less tricks than were available in order to reach such an ending.

Here is a recent example of a rare and spectacular ending that was achieved by my partner in a recent game against robots on BBO. In order to see the ending, repeatedly click the "Next" button below the hand that appears when you click this link until you get to the end of trick 9:

Click to see rare and spectacular ending

If there are other crazy people like me who find such things amusing, I will post more examples in the future.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

There are 13 top winners so its just cash out.

[cherdano]

cloa513, on 2011-December-25, 19:30, said:

There are 13 top winners so its just cash out.

If you don't think the position at trick 9 is cute, then....this thread isn't for you.

[fred]

Here is another example...

Click to see another example

This is the first time I have ever seen this particular ending (which takes place at trick 13). Our robots normally don't get into the spirit of things the way they did on this deal - thanks GIB E and GIB W for helping to make this ending possible!

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[MrAce]

fred, on 2011-December-25, 19:08, said:

If there are other crazy people like me who find such things amusing, I will post more examples in the future.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

Hi Fred, i think i have a similar thing that i was obsessed with for a long time, not sure if that counts for what you asked.

When i was bored i tried to take as much tricks as possible with same spot or honor cards from both hands (i.e ♦Q from hand and discarding ♣Q, then ♦T from hand and another T from dummy....)

If i remember correctly i made 5 tricks in a suit contract and 7 in a NT contract at most. But in order to do that i had to reduce the number of total available tricks.

[Cyberyeti]

My all time favourite stupid end position after a lot of ruffing and overruffing left tricks 12 and 13 in a 3♥ contract being won by my 5 and 4 of trumps with one of the opps following with the 3 and 2. I can't reconstruct the actual hands.

[Cascade]

I have seen something similar when our opponent claimed the last four tricks defensively with four jacks simultaneously commenting he had never seen that before.

[sfi]

I managed to arrange all four 10s to fall on the last trick in a tournament earlier this year. Not quite as good as all four aces in Right Through the Pack (if memory serves), but I'm still trying.

[Tomi2]

my idea would be to add another sort of robot tournament, the:

Beer-Card Best Hand Robot Reward

you get the best hand at the table but it must be sure that you hold the ♦7 as well, so either it will be set somehow or the dealer will redeal as long as possible to assure that.

From then the tourney runs as it is before but only those boards where you win the last trick with the beer-card will count into the score, the rest will be scored as passout, even if you or gib wins a grand

-So if you see a medium to bad hand comming you can try to passout
-if a bad board is already in the cardplay, like a game for gib, try to pitch the card as soon as possible to get the board scored as zero
-if your dia 7 is relatively short, try to passout
-else try to bid the best contract and make it with scoring the beercard

[Phil]

I have to admit that when I viewed both examples, it was mostly 'yawn'. Especially after the lead-in of "rare and spectacular". Rare, yes. Spectacular? Um...

However, for aficionados of the beer card (me included), this type of ending presents a lot of interesting possibilities.

The first example has you claiming with quads, even though you had to run through some contortions to get there. I think we've all been able to claim with AAAA before.

The 2nd example is far more intriguing to me. Being able to manipulate the play to end up with four of the same suit played to T13 is pretty cool.

[fred]

Yet another example

Go through the first 7 tricks to see the ending and notice several important points of technique:

- the farsighted unblock of the Queen of clubs at trick 1
- the careful play of the trump suit
- the importance of rectifying the count at trick 7
- the delicate order in which the cards were played to the last 6 tricks

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[barmar]

I think a whole tourney where you have to win the beer would be a bit rough, but how about a beer space on the Bridge Bingo card?

[MickyB]

I once had a position where I should have won trick 11 in hand, upon which I would have led a plain card towards dummy's 5-3 of trumps with the 4-2 onside. I messed it up and the 4 won trick 13.

My proudest bridge achievement is winning two successive tricks with the beer card.

[rduran1216]

If its possible to "troll" in cardplay this kinda stuff is it. Pretty interesting anyhow.

[BunnyGo]

MickyB, on 2011-December-26, 18:27, said:

My proudest bridge achievement is winning two successive tricks with the beer card.

how?

I once remembered the saying "when both sides lead the same suit on successive tricks, one side is probably wrong" when my RHO led out of turn, and I then led the same suit on the same trick.

[Cyberyeti]

BunnyGo, on 2011-December-27, 01:22, said:

how?

I once remembered the saying "when both sides lead the same suit on successive tricks, one side is probably wrong" when my RHO led out of turn, and I then led the same suit on the same trick.

Last of one hand and first of next ?

[MickyB]

Cyberyeti, on 2011-December-27, 09:50, said:

Last of one hand and first of next ?

Yup

[gnasher]

fred, on 2011-December-26, 16:47, said:

Yet another example

Go through the first 7 tricks to see the ending and notice several important points of technique:

- the farsighted unblock of the Queen of clubs at trick 1
- the careful play of the trump suit
- the importance of rectifying the count at trick 7
- the delicate order in which the cards were played to the last 6 tricks

Actually I think declarer was rather careless - she should have discarded ♦2 on the third trump, then played ♠5 and ♠J on the first two rounds of the suit.

PS: I managed two pairs - queens and nines - today.

[han]

Two years ago I was playing with a good but very imaginative Dutch player. When I started declaring the second hand in a row, he took out my previous hand and started studying it. I hated that. After a minute or so he exclamed:

I knew it, Han, you butchered that hand! If you had given up a diamond earlier, you could have claimed at trick 11 with three high 8's in your hand!


I hated that as well, thanks for bringing up that memory Fred.