 | |
| Author | Robert Darvas & Norman de V. Hart |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Subject | Contract bridge |
| Published | 1947 |
| Publisher | Contract Bridge Equipment Ltd. |
| Pages | 220 |
Right Through the Pack: A Bridge Fantasy is a 1947 book about the game of contract bridge by Robert Darvas and Norman de Villiers Hart. It includes 52 deals in which each of the 52 cards of the pack plays a significant role, described by and interspersed with comments from the playing cards themselves, the anthropomorphic "People of the Pack".
Darvas (1906-1957) was the best-known Hungarian bridge journalist of his day. [1] : 101 Hart (1888 –after 1947) was an English bridge player and writer. [1] : 200 Austrian bridge player and theorist Paul Stern had (being a Jew and also strongly anti-Nazi) sought refuge in London after Nazi Germany occupied Austria in the 1938 Anschluss . According to the Introduction to the book by English bridge writer Guy Ramsay, Stern had known Darvas in the 1930s and in his exile had become friends with Hart. Stern proposed a book by the two of them, combining the Hungarian's fantasy and wit and the Englishman's fancy and humour. Soviet Russia, which had taken control of Hungary after World War II, considered bridge a decadent game. By devious routes Darvas smuggled out his ideas for bridge deals to Stern, who passed them on to Hart, who wrote the narrative. There were still difficulties to overcome; they were solved by English bridge player and writer Ben Cohen, who gave the book its title and even managed to arrange for Darvas to come to England to see it through to publication. [2]
The narrator has been involved in bridge all day –writing an article, playing rubber bridge, and taking part in a practice match. In the early hours of the morning, alone in a club cardroom puzzling over a deal from that day, the 52 cards speak with him and with each other, and each one tells him a story of a deal in which they had played a significant part. The narrator proposes to write a book about the tales of the People of the Pack; they are delighted by the idea. In the daylight, a club steward enters the cardroom and opens the window blinds. The steward asks the narrator if he has been asleep. "No, I have not been asleep."
All 52 deals contain points of technical interest, from the whimsical through the practical to the highly advanced. (For example, the penultimate deal involves the extremely rare hexagon squeeze, and the final deal describes a novel coup named the Robert coup after its discoverer, Robert Darvas.) Every card in Hart's narrative has their own distinct personality, and each suit has its own personality traits.
The book includes a handful of cartoons which depict some of the cards. They are uncredited, but resemble in style some of those by Fougasse, co-author and illustrator of the 1934 humorous book about bridge Aces Made Easy. [3]
The title page acknowledges Stern's contribution as " Compèred by Dr. Paul Stern"; he also provided the Foreword.
The 52nd and last deal in the book is "The Tale of the Four of Diamonds". It describes a coup, attributed to and named in honour of Robert Darvas, which involves (1) a ruff-and-discard, ruffed by the longer trump hand (or by both declarer and dummy) to shorten the trump holding and so preserve an exit card, and (2) forcing the other defender to ruff with a high trump to prevent a lower trump taking a trick en passant , and so endplaying him in the trump suit. The deal was:
| ♠ | 953 | ||||
| ♥ | K | ||||
| ♦ | 9532 | ||||
| ♣ | A6543 | ||||
| ♠ | 876 | N | ♠ | KJ10 | |
| ♥ | Q3 | ♥ | J109876542 | ||
| ♦ | AJ108 | ♦ | - | ||
| ♣ | 10987 | ♣ | K | ||
| Lead: ♥Q | ♠ | AQ42 | |||
| ♥ | A | ||||
| ♦ | KQ764 | ||||
| ♣ | QJ2 | ||||
The bidding went:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♦ | Pass | 2♦ | 3♥ |
| 4♦ | Dbl | All pass |
| The play began (with winning cards boldfaced): |
| Trick 1: ♥Q, K, 2, A |
| Trick 2: ♦K, A, 2, ♥4 |
| Trick 3: ♣10, A (declarer has no chance unless E has singleton K), K, 2 |
| Tricks 4-7: ♠3 to Q (a finesse), then ♠A, ♣Q, ♣J |
| Trick 8: ♠2, 8, 9, K |
The position is now, with East to lead:
| ♠ | - | ||||
| ♥ | - | ||||
| ♦ | 953 | ||||
| ♣ | 65 | ||||
| ♠ | - | N | ♠ | - | |
| ♥ | 3 | ♥ | J10987 | ||
| ♦ | J108 | ♦ | - | ||
| ♣ | 9 | ♣ | - | ||
| ♠ | 4 | ||||
| ♥ | - | ||||
| ♦ | Q764 | ||||
| ♣ | - | ||||
Declarer ruffs the forced ♥ return with ♦4 (shortening his trumps to the same number as West) and overruffs in dummy with ♦5. A small ♣ is led from dummy and ruffed. North and South now each hold two trumps while West holds three; this is the key to the position. South leads ♠4. West must ruff high or declarer will make his tenth trick at once; but after doing so, is endplayed at trick 12 into leading into the split tenace in trumps (93 facing Q7).
The Bridge Players' Encyclopedia gives a different example deal. [1] : 423–424
Bridge Players' Encyclopedia has called the book one of those which made "a major improvement to the technical development of the game". [1] : 666, 672 In a 1994 ACBL poll, it was voted "One of the Top Three Bridge Books of All Time". Bridge player Randy Baron has said, "Without any doubt, the best bridge book ever written". Bridge player and writer Jeff Rubens has said, "This is my favorite bridge book, perhaps my favorite book, period. It has entertained me on every reading, and there have been many. What more can I say?" [4] Bridge player and writer Ron Klinger has said, "It is on virtually every magazine's and player's list of the top ten bridge books of all time and has become a bridge classic". [5] Tim Bourke and John Sugden's Annotated Bibliography of Bridge Books in English calls it "One of the most remarkable and best-loved Bridge books of all time." [6]
The following editions have also been published:
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing it at the regional level.
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play.
In contract bridge and similar games, a finesse is a type of card play technique which will enable a player to win an additional trick or tricks should there be a favorable position of one or more cards in the hands of the opponents.
A (bridge) signal is a move in the card game of contract bridge in which partners defending against a contract play particular cards in a manner which gives a coded meaning or signal to guide their subsequent card play. This may also be referred to as carding. Signals are usually given with the cards from the two-spot to the nine-spot. There are three types of signals:
In trick-taking games, to ruff means to play a trump card to a trick. According to the rules of most games, a player must have no cards left in the suit led in order to ruff. Since the other players are constrained to follow suit if they can, even a low trump can win a trick. In some games, like Pinochle and Preferans, the player who cannot follow suit is required to ruff. In others, like Bridge and Whist, he may instead discard. Normally, ruffing will win a trick. But it is also possible that a subsequent player will overruff. This is not always a bad thing—see uppercut below.
In contract bridge, coup is a generic name for various techniques in play, denoting a specific pattern in the lie and the play of cards; it is a special play maneuver by declarer.
Rubber bridge is a form of contract bridge played by two competing pairs using a particular method of scoring. A rubber is completed when one pair becomes first to win two games, each game presenting a score of 100 or more contract points; a new game ensues until one pair has won two games to conclude the rubber. Owing to the availability of various additional bonus and penalty points in the scoring, it is possible, though less common, to win the rubber by amassing more total points despite losing two games out of three. Rubber bridge involves a high degree of skill but there is also a fair amount of luck involved in who gets the best cards. A popular variation of rubber bridge is known as Chicago.
Ruff and Honours or Slamm was an English trick-taking card game that was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries; it was superseded in the 18th century by Whist.
The trump coup is a contract bridge coup used when the hand on lead has no trumps remaining, while the next hand in rotation has only trumps, including a high one that would have been onside for a direct finesse if a trump could have been led. The play involves forcing that hand to ruff, only to be overruffed. A similar motive is met in coup en passant, where indirect finesse is used instead of direct.
These terms are used in contract bridge, using duplicate or rubber scoring. Some of them are also used in whist, bid whist, the obsolete game auction bridge, and other trick-taking games. This glossary supplements the Glossary of card game terms.
Cinch, also known as Double Pedro or High Five, is an American trick-taking card game derived from Pitch via Pedro. Developed in Denver, Colorado in the 1880s, it was soon regarded as the most important member of the All Fours family but went out of fashion with the rise of Auction Bridge. The game is primarily played by 4 players in fixed partnerships, but can also be played by 2–6 individual players.
Backwash squeeze is a rare squeeze which involves squeezing an opponent which lies behind declarer's menace. A variation of this, known as the "Sydney Squeeze" or "Seres Squeeze", was discovered in play at a rubber bridge game in Sydney, Australia in 1965, by the Australian great Tim Seres; it was later attested by famous bridge theorist Géza Ottlik in an article in The Bridge World in 1974, as well as in his famous book Adventures in Card Play, co-authored with Hugh Kelsey.
The Belladonna coup is the play of a low card away from an accompanying high card, giving the opponents the impossible choice between setting up a winner for declarer and abandoning an attack on another suit.
A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically, an entire suit is nominated as a trump suit; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts, the terms trump card or to trump refers to any sort of action, authority, or policy which automatically prevails over all others.
In contract bridge, card reading is the process of inferring which remaining cards are held by each opponent. The reading is based on information gained in the bidding and the play to previous tricks. The technique is used by the declarer and defenders primarily to determine the probable suit distribution and honor card holdings of each unseen hand; determination of the location of specific spot-cards may be critical as well. Card reading is based on the fact that there are thirteen cards in each of four suits and thirteen cards in each of four hands.
Paul Lukacs was a Hungarian-Israeli mathematician, analyst and composer of problems in the "play of the hand" at contract bridge. Some consider him "the best bridge player ever away from the table", as defined by Victor Mollo. He specialized in single dummy problems.
The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, but apply to a wide range of card games. For glossaries that relate primarily to one game or family of similar games, see Game-specific glossaries.
Court Piece is a trick-taking card game similar to the card game whist in which eldest hand makes trumps after the first five cards have been dealt, and trick-play is typically stopped after one party has won seven tricks. A bonus is awarded if one party wins the first seven tricks, or even all tricks. The game is played by four players in two teams, but there are also adaptations for two or three players.
Triomphe, once known as French Ruff, is a card game dating from the late 15th century. It most likely originated in France or Spain and later spread to the rest of Europe. When the game arrived in Italy, it shared a similar name with the pre-existing game and deck known as trionfi; probably resulting in the latter becoming renamed as Tarocchi (tarot). While trionfi has a fifth suit that acts as permanent trumps, triomphe randomly selects one of the existing four suits as trumps. Another common feature of this game is the robbing of the stock. Triomphe became so popular that during the 16th century the earlier game of trionfi was gradually renamed tarocchi, tarot, or tarock. This game is the origin of the English word "trump" and is the ancestor of many trick-taking games like Euchre and Whist.
Gleek is an English card game for three persons. It is played with a 44-card pack and was popular from the 16th century through the 18th century.