January 2013 - 60

Stacy and I played in a sectional in
November, and I was dealt the best
hand I have ever held. Here it is.
10 8 7 6 8 7 5 3 7 6 9 6 4.
Granted, this would not be a very
exciting bridge hand, but what a
Fan-Tan hand! For those not in the
know, Fan-Tan is an old Chinese game
where the first card played must be a
7. Each person in turn plays a higher
or lower touching card (6 or 8), starts
a new suit with a 7, adds on to any
suit on the table, or passes.
Your objective is simply to be the
first one to get rid of all of your cards.
You score the remaining cards in
all hands. There is a ton of strategy
involved. The hand above would have
had control of all four suits. I love
seeing beauty where there was none
before.
Speaking of Claude, the other night
we were playing online when out of
the blue he typed, "What happened
to that woman who was pounding on
your hotel room door all night?" I had
no idea what to say, so I typed back:
"I had to get up and let her out." He is
my version of Rain Man.
The United States Bridge Federation, which administers team trials
and sends our athletes to the World
Championships, has agreed to allow
people to sponsor the three trials:
Open, Women's and Seniors. What this
means to you is that if you want your
name to live on in bridge immortality,
name one of the events after yourself.
You could name it after a relative or
a fond pet, or even a flower (but not
all three: "Aunt Tilda's Pomeranian
Fluffy, Who Did Her Business in the
Daffodils" is a stretch, even for me).
Contact the USBF or Jan Martel at
janmartel@comcast.net. This could
be the ultimate gift you could ever
60 Bridge Bulletin January 2013

By George Jacobs
NOBET8888@aol.com

give or receive. There are only three
events, so hurry.
Now a story from Rod Fullerton of
Pensacola FL. It seems Rod played at
the club and heard it go 1 on his left
and 4 from partner. Now RHO, with
9 scattered points, bid 5, which was
the final contract. Rod got a zero. The
next day, Rod opened 1. It went 4
on his left, 5 by his partner, 5 by
his RHO, all pass - and another zero.
After the game was over, it occurred
to Rod that it might be the unshuffled
board from the previous day. Sure
enough, it was. Rod's opponents had
not played at the club the day before,
so he did not feel the need to alert the
director. Imagine playing the same
deal two days in a row from different directions and getting zeros both
times. Luckily, he did not play bridge
the third day.
My partner, Steve Beatty, is quite a
good bidder, having previously won
the "Challenge of the Decade" in The
Bridge World's Challenge the Champs.
I think he was playing with Curtis
Cheek then. It might have been the
Eighties, Nineties or later.
Anyway, Steve can really bid. He is
on the Challenge the Champs panel
for The Bridge World and had quite a
month in November. Out of a possible
800 points, he got 790. This is quite
remarkable. After all, if any one of

the readers ever gets a perfect score
of 800, they get to appear as a guest
panelist. Of course, it is easier to bid
alone than with me across the table.
Speaking of Curtis, how many of
you know that he was a rocket scientist? He gave up that career to play
bridge.
Speaking of rocket science, we had
a wonderful bridge personality who
died in 2005 named Malcolm Brachman. Before he won a world championship, he taught physics at the
University of Chicago and worked at
the laboratory that traces its birth to
the Manhattan Project.
Bridge has politicians, business
people, scientists, astronauts, TV producers, judges, artists, sports figures
- and a ballerina from San Diego. We
are indeed a cross-section of humanity, albeit on the high end. Sure, we
have bums, too, but they were probably productive citizens before they
found their callings at the bridge
table. To many of us, bridge is a hobby, but to those for whom it is their
life, their hobbies are totally varied.
For instance, Nick Nickell has one
of the largest envelope collections
in the world. He once showed me a
self-sealing, manila, bifolding, 9-by-12
offset tricut, pre-stamped envelope
from 1944 in pristine condition. Even
bridge enthusiasts need hobbies.
Here is a hand from next month's
article:
K Q 10 A 9 8 7 4 J 9 Q 10 8.
If you can tell me the best opening
lead and whether you want to defend
or declare, you may win a copy of
my new blockbuster sequel to Bidding for One, called Bidding as One.
Please, no peeking.
Ciao, and best wishes for a happy
and prosperous 2013.
r

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2013