The brilliant American bridge writer and former world champion Eddie Kantar once overheard two wives in his bridge class arguing about which of their husbands was the worse player. The first wife said, ‘Look, there’s no contest. Last night, my husband was in 7NT with 11 top tricks, and dummy had the ♥AQ with the ♥K onside, so a finesse would have worked. But he managed to wind up in dummy at Trick 11 and, with two cards left, led the ♥Q from ♥AQ!’ The second wife simply shrugged and said: ‘What’s so terrible about that? Against my husband, that play works.’
I was reminded of this exchange last week when, playing against a husband-wife pair, the wife erupted at her husband for failing to duck a trick. She was being a little harsh, I thought — but then husbands and wives do tend to be harsh with each other at the bridge table; there’s no place better to release their pent-up irritations:
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in