Puzzle 8F29   Main

Game and Beer in Hand

by Richard Pavlicek

Being an election year with incredibly weak candidates, it’s only fitting to offer a bridge puzzle with incredibly weak hands. The good news is that you can leave this page in less than four seconds. The bad news is that no matter who wins in November, we’ll be stuck for another four years. Sigh. At least bridge and politics blend well, as South would have to be a “Bid en” fool to declare no “Trump” on this deal:

3 NT South	10 7 5 4 9 8 7 3 J 8 7 6 4			Trick 1 W 2 W 3 W 4 W 5 W	Lead A K Q J 10	2nd 4 5 7 10 J	3rd 6 8 9 A Q	4th 2 3 2 2 K	W-L L1 L2 L3 L4 W1
A K Q J Q J 6 5 10 K 10 5 3			9 8 6 A K 10 4 A Q A Q J 9
Lead: A	3 2 2 K 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 2

Obviously East-West can win 13 tricks in any contract except diamonds, but this is Fantasy Land. With cooperation from East-West, it is possible for South to win nine tricks in notrump — and it can be done with flair, ending with the beer card. Game and beer in hand!

West cashes four spades, allowing East to dump the A, while South pitches a heart and a club. West then exits with the 10 (jack, queen, king) and South has the rest, carefully preserving the 7 for last.

Easy game and thirst quencher, but the same could be achieved with a weaker hand, which brings me to the puzzle:

What is the weakest possible hand to win nine tricks in notrump and a beer?

Weakness is judged as the sum of South’s card ranks* so the above hand adds to 66. All N-S tricks must be won by South, and you can dictate the play of all hands, however absurd. You must obey the rules of bridge: no revokes, leads out of turn, etc.

*Ace = 14, King = 13, Queen = 12, Jack = 11, etc.

Jim Munday Wins

This puzzle contest ran from September 10 to Election Day (November 3) 2020. There were 150 entries from 88 persons (multiple entries were allowed from the same person, but only the latest one counted). Thanks to all who participated, and congratulations to the 45 listed below who found the optimal solution. Ranking is by date and time of submission.

Winner List

Rank	Name	Location
1	Jim Munday	Mississippi
2	Grant Peacock	Maryland
3	Andrew Spooner	Australia
4	Nick Jacob	New Zealand
5	Audrey Kueh	England
6	Charles Blair	Illinois
7	Nicholas Greer	England
8	David Wu	California
9	Jeff Yutzler	Virginia
10	Aurelien Boutin	France
11	Mads Krogsgaard	Denmark
12	David Yates	New York
13	Jurijs Balasovs	Latvia
14	Gonzalo Goded	Spain
15	Krishna Chakravartula	India
16	Kit Woolsey	California
17	Danny Sprung	Nevada
18	Peter Fordham	Australia
19	Eric Gettleman	Maryland
20	John Adams	Washington
21	Peter Boyd	Maryland
22	Tom Slater	England
23	Veljko Vujcic	Serbia
24	Bjorn Ohlsson	Sweden
25	Jacco Hop	Netherlands
26	Paul Barden	England
27	Eivind Hansen	Norway
28	Roger Pewick	Texas
29	Andrew Yeckel	Minnesota
30	Cyrus Hettle	Kentucky
31	Thibault Wolf	France
32	Mark Johnson	New Mexico
33	Bart Bramley	Texas
34	Klaus Claassen	Sweden
35	Dave Wiltshire	Australia
36	Mike Gill	Maryland
37	Nadav Trumer	Israel
38	John Torrey	North Carolina
39	Jasper Vahk	Estonia
40	Karl-Markus Pruul	Estonia
41	Martin Maasik	Estonia
42	Samuel Pahk	Massachusetts
43	Don Kersey	Ontario
44	Joel Wooldridge	New York
45	John Lee	England

Puzzle 8F29   Main

Top   Game and Beer in Hand

Solution

It is possible to reduce South’s rank sum to 46, and there are five different ways to do this (ignoring suit identity) as illustrated by the following selected entries.

The first to submit a 46-sum solution was Jim Munday of Mississippi, who is no stranger to puzzles, rarely missing a beat. In fact, bad hands are his specialty, as I can attest firsthand that he bids them with flair — of course everyone else just passes. Jim’s construction hinges on South having a transmundane (a word I just learned in his honor) entry in hearts.

3 NT South	— A K Q J A K Q J 6 A K Q J			Trick 1 W 2 W 3 W 4 W 5 W 6 S 7 S 8 S 9 S 10 S 11 S 12 S 13 S	Lead A K Q J 5 4 3 2 5 4 3 2 7	2nd A K Q J A 6 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	3rd 10 9 8 7 10 K Q J A K Q J 6	4th 2 3 2 3 6 9 8 7 10 9 8 5 4	W-L L1 L2 L3 L4 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 5 — 6			— 10 9 8 7 10 9 8 5 4 10 9 8 7
Lead: A	3 2 6 4 3 2 7 3 2 5 4 3 2

Jim Munday: Four rounds of spades, N-E unblock hearts, 3-2 from South. Heart five to 6 and 4-3-2 as all pitch clubs, then 5-4-3-2 as N-E pitch high diamonds. The  7 wins last trick.

Runner-up, Grant Peacock of Maryland, spread his feathers with the same occult entry to South, but with a different hand pattern. Further, he offers a valid explanation for the bidding and play. Call it “52 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

3 NT South	— A K Q J 9 K Q J 9 A K 9 7			Trick 1 W 2 W 3 W 4 W 5 W 6 S 7 S 8 S 9 S 10 S 11 S 12 S 13 S	Lead A K Q J 5 4 3 2 5 4 3 2 7	2nd 7 9 K A 9 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4	3rd 8 10 J Q 6 J Q K 9 J Q K A	4th 2 3 2 3 6 8 10 A 5 6 7 8 10	W-L L1 L2 L3 L4 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 4 — 5			— 10 8 7 6 5 A 10 8 6 Q J 10 8
Lead: A	3 2 3 2 7 5 4 3 2 6 4 3 2

Grant Peacock: Absurd, you say? This all makes perfect sense. N-S are a new partnership on shaky ground with 2  auctions. North deals: 2  P 2  (negative) P; 2  P 2 NT (more negative) P; 3 NT. West decides that defending a vulnerable 3 NT should be a good result, so he stays silent and starts with four top spades, as declarer cleverly discards clubs from dummy and hearts from hand. East also pitches four clubs to keep length with dummy. West next does something silly; thinking the 5 is high, he tries to cash it. On the run of the clubs, West, now a bit flustered, hangs onto his 4. East now thinks he needs to guard hearts, so he copies North to pitch all four diamonds. Meanwhile, South is highly motivated for another beer — “If one of those bottles should happen to fall…”

Nicholas Greer, England, was the first to produce the variation where South’s link to beerdom is in the diamond suit itself. He also earns style points for the weakest possible North hand (rank-sum 91) let alone a surname that rhymes with beer.

3 NT South	8 7 6 5 4 9 8 7 6 10 9 8 4			Trick 1 W 2 W 3 W 4 W 5 W 6 S 7 S 8 S 9 S 10 S 11 S 12 S 13 S	Lead A K Q J 5 4 3 2 5 4 3 2 7	2nd 4 10 9 8 9 10 9 5 6 7 8 9 10	3rd A K Q J A 8 7 6 4 5 6 7 8	4th 2 3 2 3 6 K Q J 10 J Q K A	W-L L1 L2 L3 L4 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9
9 10 5 A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5			A K Q J 10 A K Q J A K Q J —
Lead: A	3 2 5 4 3 2 7 6 4 3 2 3 2

Nicholas Greer: West cashes four clubs as all the diamonds are discarded by North and East (spades from South), then the 5 goes to the six, and 4-3-2 are cashed to remove all the hearts. Next come the hearts, and finally…

Jacco Hop: Such an amazing South hand deserves a beer!

I guess his family should know, named for a plant used in brewing.

Only two of the winners produced a dual-entry solution, i.e., South having clandestine entries in two suits and gaining the lead twice. One was from Gonzalo Goded, Spain, who gave South 5-3-2 3-2 7-4-3-2 6-4-3-2; but the cleverest of all came from Nick Jacob, New Zealand, who found the only construction to give South flat distribution:

3 NT South	— 10 9 8 7 6 10 9 8 5 4 8 7 6			Trick 1 W 2 S 3 W 4 W 5 W 6 W 7 S 8 S 9 S 10 S 11 S 12 S 13 S	Lead 4 2 K Q J 4 3 2 5 4 3 2 7	2nd 10 A 8 7 6 8 K A 6 7 8 9 10	3rd A 9 Q J Q J 7 6 10 9 8 5 4	4th 5 K 3 2 3 5 10 9 A K Q J 6	W-L W1 L1 L2 L3 L4 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 4 4 — A K			— A K Q J A K Q J 6 Q J 10 9
Lead: 4	5 3 2 5 3 2 7 3 2 5 4 3 2

Nick Jacob: West leads the 4 to the five, followed by four more spades, on which North throws five hearts, East four hearts and a club, and South the 3-2. West exits with the 4 to South for three rounds there, allowing West, North and East to unblock all their remaining clubs. Then four rounds of clubs for diamond unblocks and a well-deserved beer. Speaking of which…

Final Notes

Beer for thought: Ten years ago Jim Munday won my Toughest Beer in Bridge contest.
Inquiring minds need to know: Between then and now, was he ever sober?

Audrey Kueh: No wonder partner passes my forcing bids when I bid like this.

The Donald: Why am I not on the winner list? I will challenge these results in court and intend to sue RPbridge and PavCo for running this fake contest.

Which brings us to Election Day. No surprises. Voting ran true to form, as predicted months ago:

2020 Election Results

Rank	Name	Electoral Votes
1	Beer	Too many to count
2	Joe Biden	Who cares +1
3	Donald Trump	Who cares -1

Puzzle 8F29   Main

Top   Game and Beer in Hand

© 2020 Richard Pavlicek