Jerry Sohl - Underhanded Bridge: A Hilarious Handbook of Devious Diversions and Stratagems for Winning at Bridge

A Hilarious Handbook of Devious Diversions andStratagems for Winning at Bridge

by

JERRY SOHL

Produced by ReAnimus Press

Other books by Jerry Sohl:

Costigan s Needle

Night Slaves

The Mars Monopoly

One Against Herculum

The Time Dissolver

The Transcendent Man

I, Aleppo

The Altered Ego

The Anomaly

Death Sleep

The Odious Ones

Point Ultimate

The Haploids

Prelude to Peril

The Resurrection of Frank Borchard

The Lemon Eaters

The Spun Sugar Hole

Underhanded Chess

Night Wind

Black Thunder

Dr. Josh

Blowdry

Mamelle

Kaheesh

2013, 1975 by Jerry Sohl. All rights reserved.

http://ReAnimus.com/authors/jerrysohl

Cover art and illustrations by Roy Schlemme

Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

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There is a place in the heart of Los Angeles calledthe Magic Castle. It is really castlelike, difficult to reach ifyouve never been there before, and it is a sort of retreatfor magicians. Yet it is more than that, for people in showbusinessstars, producers, writers, designersand those in alliedprofessions go there for dinner and to watch professional magiciansdo their thing in little amphitheaters.

On one of the nights I was there an older magician,whom I shall call Miles Evart, took his seat beside me at one ofthe big felt-covered tables and went through a series ofastonishing card tricksmaking entire decks vanish at will; causingcards to rise, fall, or float; dealing out perfect bridge handsallof it appropriately electrifying and incredible.

There were a half dozen of us at the table watchinghim like hawks, but of course, we were unable to detect how thesethings could possibly be done. The overhead lights were bright,even dazzling. If I had not seen these things with my own eyes, Iwould have said they were impossible.

Near the end of his act Miles Evart turned to me andextended his hand with a deck of cards in it saying, Examine thesecards.

I took the cards, studied them carefully, fanned themto show them to those at the table, and held them up so that theothers in the amphitheater seats could see. The cards wereobviously an ordinary bridge deck with the cards arranged in noparticular order. I wondered what kind of trick Evart was going toperform and vowed to learn its secret, whatever it was. After all,how could I miss anything with Evart only about two feet away fromme?

He said, Now hand the cards to me.

I held up the deck to him, slyly noting that a nineof diamonds was the bottom card and a three of spades the top. Iwas still holding the cards when Evart took hold of the deck withthree fingers on top and his thumb on the bottom. His little fingerdid not touch the cards at all; it merely waggled in midair. I wasabout to release my hold and let him do with the cards what hewould when he said, Dont let go!

I needed no encouragement. I gripped the cards hard.I told myself Id feel whatever he was doingif hecould do anything. How could he? Wasnt I holding the cards,too?

He brought his eyes up to mine, smiled, and thensaid, Do you want these cards? He still had not released them andneither had I. Just an ordinary pack, right?

Right.

You could use them in your next bridge game. You doplay bridge, dont you?

I sure do, I said, wondering what he was gettingat.

I think, Evart said, that youd better look at thecards first. He let the pack go. After you examine them, if youstill want them, youre welcome to them.

I opened the cards, then spread them out on the feltfor all to see.

Every card was a king of spades!

It was at this moment that I realized that although Iknew that (1) the Bangkok Club convention was developed by SomboonNandhabiwat of Thailand and I was familiar with how to play it; (2)the probability of holding thirteen cards of the same suit in abridge hand was .00000000016 percent, and; (3) that a two no trumpresponse is positive for the Roman two diamonds, which indicates astrong three-suited hand, what I had just experienced rendered suchfancy knowledge useless in any game wherein the oppositionconsisted of two Miles Evarts.

Of course there were no two Miles Evarts, butthere had been others. Yes, I remembered other bridge rogues. Somehad amused me, others had made me cry. Still others had caused meto gnash my teeth. Some I recalled fondly, some even with warmaffection; otherseven after all these yearsstill made mebristle.

There was Carter Lyndhurst, for example. He and hiswife, Harriet, had come over for an evening of half a cent a point.My wife, Jean, and I were still young innocents adrift among ashoal of schemers then. Calvin was jovial. His wife was on thetaciturn side, and a drink or two never loosened her up, even whenshe was dummy, as she was in this particular hand:

Carter had to make three tricks or go down, so he,being South and the declarer, Jed the jack from dummy, Harrietlooking on vacant-eyed (most beguilingly as I was to discoverlater). My wife, East, had no choice but to play a small card. Iwould cover with the queen if Carter played a small card, and hisfinesse through East for the queen would have failed.

South played a small card of another suit! I blinked.I thought I had counted right, but I was wrong. So I reached out totake the trick with the queenexcept that I didnt take itbecause Carter, suddenly coming to his senses, said, Oh, Iveplayed the wrong suit! and promptly took back his small card ofthe other suit and put on his king. He said to me, You dont haveto lose your queen, you know. You have the privilege of playing asmaller card if you have one of the suit.

So I played my small card, and Carter won with theking. Next he won my queen via the small card and the ace indummy.

It suddenly became clear to me that if, in the firstplace, I had played the small card of the suit being led from dummyinstead of the queen, Carter would still have revoked, thensubstituting his failure to follow suit with the small card of thesuit led, letting the jack win. Then he would have played to theking from dummy to capture my queen. His maneuver was merely one ofdetermining where the queen was. And it was, as I found out,perfectly legal.

At the time, however, I didnt think so. I said,Hey! Thats not fair, Carter, you not following suit likethat.

Not fair! Carters eyebrows went up and his eyesbecame round with innocence. Why isnt it fair?

I had moxie enough to say, A director or bridgecommittee would get you for that, Carter. Theyd probably penalizeyou two tricks. In fact, I think you ought to take the loss anyway.Not following suit, indeed!

Now just wait a minute, old buddy, Carter said. Youjust dont know the rules. He withdrew from his coat pocket a copyof the Laws of Contract Bridge. Look here, he said, turning pagesand finding what he wanted. He put the book on the table, hisfingers pointing to Law 62: Correction of a Revoke. [Laws ofContact Bridge: The International Code (New York: Crown,1963).]