Unlike poker, there’s not much money to be made from bridge tournaments (consider yourself lucky if you win £40 in vouchers). There is one event, however, where big bucks — actually, euros — are at stake. The invitation-only Cavendish Pairs attracts top players from all over the world; they are auctioned off (they can buy back a percentage of themselves if they’re outbid) and a huge pot is raised. The 52 pairs taking part in this year’s Cavendish, held last week in Monaco, raised €618,000. The biggest draws were Geir Helgemo and Tor Helness (€47,000), Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes (€44,000), Andrew Robson and Tony Forrester (€33,000), and Krzystof Buras and Gregorz Narkiewicz (€22,000).
But here’s the funny thing: the bidders got it wrong. Well, not entirely: Buras and Narkiewicz won (netting €137,500 for their ‘owner’ and €16,200 for themselves) and Robson/Forrester came second (netting €82,500 for their owner and €9,720 for themselves).
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