Bridge | 1 April 2023

The idea of going to a bridge tournament where you have to sit in a separate room to your partner, and play with tablets instead of cards, sounds like a dystopian nightmare. But that’s exactly what’s planned at the next US Nationals. The idea is to eliminate cheating between partners via unethical hesitations and mannerisms. But most of us love the feel of cards in our hands. And we want our partners in the same room! As Zia says: ‘The day bridge is no longer played with cards is the beginning of the end.’

Luckily, at the recent Nationals in New Orleans, there wasn’t a tablet in sight, and Zia got to sit opposite his partner, David Gold – something I’m sure they both enjoyed during this hand, which helped propel them to victory in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams.

Zia was South. West was Tim Verbeek, a Dutch champion who made a jump overcall which got its just deserts. 2♥ would have been fine.Or even 1♥. But a vulnerable 3♥ was reckless. David (N) led the ♠9. Verbeek won with the ♠A and played the ♥J. Zia discarded a low encouraging diamond. David won, and played a diamond to the ◆J, ◆Q and ◆A. Back came a diamond to Zia’s ◆K. He cashed the ♠K, David throwing a diamond. Now a spade ruff, a club to Zia’s ♣A, and a third diamond, ruffed by West with the ♥9, while David pitched. The defence ended up with a spade, diamond, club and all five hearts for +1100!