I am Chief Director of the Armidale Bridge Club and every year about this time I run a special Devil's Pairs tournament prior to the bridge club's Christmas party which always occurs on a Saturday. This year was no exception and I set some fiendish deals I culled from my extensive library of important bridge books. I warned the participants - a record 18 tables - that my selected deals involved complex plays and disciplined (but imaginative) bidding, and that suits would not break according to probability tables and finesses would tend to lose!
So I made things tough for the players, but they rolled up in record numbers to suffer at my hands. To add gravitas to the occasion, I also dressed appropriately as the devil and circulated around the room chiding players and watching them make the expected mistakes as the result of my warped humour.
The next picture shows the full club-house, which hardly had room for any more tables. Moreover, it was a very hot day outside (30+C) and with 72 players in the room the temperature began to soar despite the air-conditioning. Players complained, but I told them they'd find it hotter where I came from and they needed the practice just in case they were placed in my hands.
I also made some awards during the Christmas party. One was for the most expensive error made at the table (something like -1860 points); the pair that got closest to the score on one deal where a parrot made the world's first grand slam by a feathered player; and the pair who got the best score on my constructed deal where there was a lay-down small slam on just 16 high card points. They didn't bid the slam, but they successfully played in 5S redoubled! And another of the deals had quite a history because, according to one of my books, it was first played successfully by Robin Hood in Nottingham Castle in 1185.
If anyone would like my hand records for this event please let me know and I'll send them. You can then run your own bit of devilry.
AS
So I made things tough for the players, but they rolled up in record numbers to suffer at my hands. To add gravitas to the occasion, I also dressed appropriately as the devil and circulated around the room chiding players and watching them make the expected mistakes as the result of my warped humour.
The next picture shows the full club-house, which hardly had room for any more tables. Moreover, it was a very hot day outside (30+C) and with 72 players in the room the temperature began to soar despite the air-conditioning. Players complained, but I told them they'd find it hotter where I came from and they needed the practice just in case they were placed in my hands.
I also made some awards during the Christmas party. One was for the most expensive error made at the table (something like -1860 points); the pair that got closest to the score on one deal where a parrot made the world's first grand slam by a feathered player; and the pair who got the best score on my constructed deal where there was a lay-down small slam on just 16 high card points. They didn't bid the slam, but they successfully played in 5S redoubled! And another of the deals had quite a history because, according to one of my books, it was first played successfully by Robin Hood in Nottingham Castle in 1185.
If anyone would like my hand records for this event please let me know and I'll send them. You can then run your own bit of devilry.
AS
2 comments:
I bet you were hot in that cloak.Richard.
Well, it was silk and I didn't have much underneath.
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