Monday, March 26, 2007

The 'beer dilemma'

Playing a district playoff match for the Swedish 'GNT' (grand national teams), my teammate, Krister Ahlesved, got to 6D on the resources below (I don't want to know how ;). As my opponents were satisfied with a mere game, a lot of imps were riding on the result.

AJxxxx
xx
Axx
Kx

-
Axx
KQ7xx
A8xxx

This called for a favorable layout after a heart was led to the ace. 3 rounds of clubs (discarding a H on the ace of spades along the way) saw LHO ruff in with the J of diamonds as declarer discarded the obvious H loser from dummy. When a small trump was returned, the only successful opposing distribution was JTx vs xx, so Krister ducked to the queen, cross-ruffed, setting up the long club (ruffing with the ace of trumps). The king collected the remaining trumps and he was left with the 7 of D and the 8 of C.

The 7 of D is internationally known as the 'beer card'; if you win the last trick with it, partner has to buy you a beer later. In Sweden, the 8 of C has a similar long historical tradition.

So, what would it be? Should the last trick in the winning slam be completed with the 'national' card or the 'international' card?

The mental anguish was too much. He claimed.

2 comments:

Csaba Daday said...

Hehehe. V Nice story. BTW, what a weird thing... Eight of clubs? That's a very peculiar card to designate with such an important role. Superstitious, etc etc. The only card that is apt to be called the Beer Card is the seven of diamonds -- that's absolutely clear ( :P )

Fredrik S said...

It's an obvious claim on the Swedish beer card! D may not be trump if you intend to score beer the international way, I've learned this the hard way...