What Was That Bid Again?

Dear Boo and Bubble,

Captain and I have found some friends here in Mt. Dora that know how to play the card game Bridge.  We have long enjoyed the game, both before and since we married.  

When you know how to play, Bridge is simple.  But, explaining and learning it can prove to be very complicated.  It’s based on point values given to aces and face cards; and, also, to aberrations in distribution like voids, singletons and doubletons.  You have to convey the points in your hand to your partner through a bidding process that uses the suits in ascending value – clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades then “no trump” – to determine if you can “take the bid” and have your strongest suit be “trump” (which is the suit that can overtake others regardless of their card face value….but you must follow suit…..and can only trump another if you are void in that suit). If you don’t have enough points to bid (13) then you must pass, but six points is enough to respond to your partner’s opening bid – unless you don’t have support for their suit. If your team wins the bid, then whoever opened that suit between the two of you must play the hand and the other becomes “the dummy.”  The object is to take six tricks called “book” and then the bid number above that.  If so, you get 20 points per trick for minor suits and 30 points per trick for major suits and if you get to 100 points, you win a game and if you win two games consecutively, you get a 700-point “Rubber,” but if the opposing team wins an intervening game, the “rubber” is only worth 500 points…….unless you’re scoring by Chicago rules…….

Understand?

I remember growing up at 3 Lakecrest, great granddaddy Schaefer and Mamaw Mary had a bridge group of four couples that played once a month.  When it was their turn to be host, Mamaw would set up two card tables in the living room and put bowls of peanuts on the corners.  While they played (I remember two of the couples were the Robelots and the Colemans), I pulled up an extra chair and nibbled on the nuts, watching and listening.  This was how I learned.

Captain had the same experience. Your Mamaw Kat also played regularly and was very savvy at the game.  She had what’s called “card sense.”  She had an uncanny ability to size up everybody’s hands by their bidding and know who had what cards.  When she played the bid, nine times out of ten, she won.  Captain has definitely inherited this trait.

If you boil it all down, the key to success in Bridge is proper communication of what’s in your hand and, conversely, to failure - miscommunication.  Every time I sit down to play, I can’t help but recall one of Great Granddaddy Schaefer’s favorite stories – true, mind you – about this. (To protect the innocent, the names have been changed.)

Granddaddy and Mamaw had some friends in Greenville, Anne and Henry, whom they knew very pleasantly.  Anne had a regular Bridge group who met every Wednesday morning and played from 9 – 12.  When Noon came, the game ended and the score tallied regardless of where things stood.  The hostess would then serve a light lunch and the ladies ended the day in a lighthearted chat. If, for some reason, one of the ladies couldn’t come, the rule was she had to get her own substitute.

One Wednesday, it was Anne’s turn to hostess.  About ten minutes before 9:00, the phone rang and the voice on the other end explained that she had just lost a tooth; that the dentist was available to see her right then; that she wouldn’t be able to find a substitute; that she was very sorry.  Anne was very sympathetic and assuaged her friend’s anxiety by saying - “That’s okay.  Henry is home today.  I’ll ask him to fill in for you.”

Henry agreed and he sat down at the card table with the three women.  They began the game.

Promptly at Noon, they stopped and Anne went to the kitchen to prepare some chicken salad for lunch.  Henry excused himself to go down the hall to the bathroom.  

As Anne came back into the living room, she was mortified to see that Henry had failed to shut the bathroom door fully.  The ladies were sitting there listening to the unmistakable sound of pee hitting water in the toilet.  

“Oh my goodness, girls……I am SO SORRY!  I’m sure Henry didn’t realize that the door was still open.”

To wit, one of them responded, “That’s okay, honey….it’s the first time today I’ve known what he has in his hand.”