The Beer Card

Welcome folks, from your friends at the Bridge to Nowhere team!

This will not be your standard bridge blog, earnestly discussing issues of theory, or dissecting the play of a hand with mathematical precision. We gave chess to the mathematicians, and look what they did to it! No, for us bridge is a visceral game, one played in the heart, not in the brain, whose pleasures are to be found in the happy banter of human contact and the shared beer in the bar afterwards...

With this in mind, we thought we should introduce our fellow Irishmen to the concept of the 'beer card', a staple of bridge among students (and underdeveloped adults) in the rest of the world game. The basic idea is that every time declarer takes the last trick with the 7 of diamonds, either in his own hand or in dummy, partner owes him a pint of his favourite tipple. Certain conditions apply, of course:

· The contract cannot be diamonds (too easy!)
· Declarer must make his contract
· Declarer cannot have jeopardised his contract in any way, purely for the purpose of scoring the 7 of diamonds at trick 13.

The same principles apply in defence: if a defender scores the last trick with the 7 of diamonds (a much harder task), his partner likewise has to get the next round in. Purists argue that only when the 7 of diamonds scores the setting or contract-going trick should it be rewarded with beer; but most players believe that any excuse for a pint is a good one, and reward any beer-card finish which results in a plus score (hey, for us, making a plus score is cause for celebration in itself!)

We met a defender in one of Dublin’s top bridge clubs the other week who was well aware of the ‘beer rule’, and who displayed a real concern for North’s wealth, but no consideration at all to an extremely thirsty declarer:

Dealer S Vul All Scoring MP Lead	♠ T98 ♥ 843 ♦ KJ754 ♣ A9
♠ ♥ AQJT6 ♦ Q9632 ♣ K75		♠ 76542 ♥ 952 ♦ T ♣ QT63
	♠ AKQJ3 ♥ K7 ♦ A8 ♣ J842

West	North	East	South
			1♠
2♠	p	3♥	3♠
p	4♠	p	p

One of our number was South (as you may already have guessed). He opened 1S, which was overcalled 2S Michaels, showing 5-5 in the reds. North showed well-deserved contempt for partner’s declarer play by passing, East gave weak preference, South repeated his spades and North grudgingly found the fourth. On the lead of the diamond 3, how would you play?

Our hero played low from dummy and won with the A in hand. He then took a top trump, discovering the bad break. After due thought he ran the spade suit (you don’t know if trumps are drawn until you see both opponents show out), on which West threw one club and four hearts (including the Ace – a valiant attempt to avoid an endplay in diamonds). South then ducked a club all round to East’s T, receiving a heart return to his K. He then led the 8 of diamonds, which was allowed to hold the trick, and crossed to the Ace of clubs in the following 4-card ending:

	♠ ♥ ♦ KJ7 ♣ A
♠ ♥ ♦ Q96 ♣ K		♠ ♥ 95 ♦ ♣ Q6
	♠ ♥ 7 ♦ ♣ J84

Now he led the Jack of diamonds off the board, hoping for West to take and exit with the 9, allowing the 7 of diamonds to score for a well-earned pint. Alas West ducked, leaving the 7 to be taken by the 9 at trick 13 and South to buy his own drinks for the rest of the evening...