Puzzles 3Y33 Main
Bridge Word Puzzles
by Richard PavlicekPuzzles 3Y33 Main |
| by Richard Pavlicek |
These bridge word puzzles created by Richard Pavlicek have been used as fillers in a variety of publications related to bridge. Warning! You probably won’t improve your bridge game here, but you might be entertained.
Answers can be found at the end. No fair peeking!
If someone said “Bobby likes to Wolff down his food,” it would get a groan in bridge circles.
How many of these famous players can you identify from the intended puns?
1. Bill doesn’t play very often, but he knows which team to for.
2. Al liquidated his investments and put the proceeds into a I.R.A.
3. Eric went fishing and got his reel all tangled, but he held the .
4. Bob ordered eggs for breakfast.
5. Lynn was an excellent student, except for the occasional on her report card.
6. Richard was finally granted a parole, and he is now a .
7. Michael joined the Navy and became a First Class.
8. Kathie said there was no she could lose the match.
9. Nick wouldn’t give a for his chances to win the Vanderbilt.
10. Billy held up his glass and proposed a toast: “It’s time!”
If someone asked you which notable bridge player is a flower, you might answer Irving Rose or Harold Lilie (spelling doesn’t count) or even stretch to include Charlie Weed. Can you name three bridge players (past or present) that fit each of these categories?
1. Colors
2. Animals
3. Trees
4. Chess
Can you complete this chain of bridge terms? Starting from the word “bridge” form each consecutive word by changing one letter in the previous word and rearranging the six letters. Finally, circle the nine new letters added and rearrange them to form the phrase suggested by the final clue.
BRIDGE
One who seldom passes
Repeats the same suit
Supported partner’s suit
Face your hand to claim
The master suit
One who seldom bids
Waits after a skip bid
Bridge hand patterns
Leads a winning card
What bridge duffers do:
Hidden in each sentence is the last name of a famous bridge player, past or present.
How many can you find? Warning: Watch out for my traps!
1. If your contract is in danger, be realistic and look for a simple solution.
2. Jacob, I know you play by instinct, but I think a plan of some kind is better than just tossing cards.
3. For some people bridge is a mental challenge; for others it’s just a way to cross the river.
4. I wish Mr. Black would not let the bidding stop so low; a young attorney should be more competitive.
5. Some years ago reneges would cost the offending side two tricks; now it might be only one trick.
6. Holding A-K-x opposite J-x-x, cash the A-K; the queen might fall and your jack will be good.
7. What slam was she in, Waldy? If it’s six clubs, even a math expert would go down.
8. Why can’t Arnie play without moping like a sour grape every time he goes set?
9. Oh, Sharri, forgive me; I was so selfish, being the only one who refused to play with you.
10. If you will stay Monday, I’ll teach you my bidding system using old manuals from high school.
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Each of these silly phrases is an anagram of a familiar bridge word or phrase that pertains to bidding. Can you unscramble them?
1. CAVE ROLL
2. BOLD WACKO
3. WOW! BAD KITE
4. DOPY AUNT BELLE
5. N.T. REBID SLIP
6. GET ONE VALUE BID
7. AVID JAM FORCERS
8. MANGLER OF CARDS
9. TIMID VERB, PEEP
Each of these silly phrases is an anagram of a familiar bridge word or phrase that pertains to card play. Can you unscramble them?
1. DEAL PIG NONE
2. LEAD SCARF
3. AGITATED INSULT
4. AMPLY PRUDENT
5. FRAN KEW-BIDS ACES
6. RE: VERY DUM SLAM
7. ANN TOPS ACES-UP
What adjective, when used pertaining to bridge, has a meaning opposite to its normal English meaning?
Many last names are pronounced like ordinary English words. Can you name a famous bridge player (past or present) for each of following descriptions:
1. Large pine box
2. Small steel spike
3. Lion’s den
4. Part of a camera
5. Wading bird
6. Catholic clergyman
7. Letter of the alphabet
8. Piece of granite
9. Common household pets
10. Flowering of a plant
Good slam bidding, or a lack of it, is a major downfall of most aficionados of our popular indoor sport. It is just too common to find good old Blackwood as an automatic slam-bidding tool. I doubt that any solution would bring unanimous approval, but my proposal is to ban all four-notrump bids from this day forward. I would also found an institution for violators — call it a Blackwood Asylum — so that stubborn fanatics could bid four notrump ad infinitum. What is unusual about this paragraph?
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Each of the following words is an anagram of the first and last name of a player in the 1997 Top 500 list. The names are not necessarily their legal given names, but the name the person goes by. For example, record books are saturated with Bob Hamman, not Robert.
1. GREYHOUND
2. RANSOMED
3. CHAUSSES
4. OSTENSIVE
Test your knowledge of bridge literature: What is the best selling textbook of all time?
A. Bridge Basics by Richard Pavlicek
B. Bridge Bidding Guide by Richard Pavlicek
C. None of the above
South handled the dummy with flawless technique and overcame several bad breaks to fulfill his five-club contract.
What was South’s occupation?
Test your knowledge about the history of contract bridge. Who invented:
A. The Stayman convention?
B. The Blackwood convention?
C. Contract bridge?
In the bridge world it would be hard to find anyone more highly respected than Norman Kay, not only from his bridge exploits (which are too long to list) but as a true gentleman. But, everyone knows that! What people don’t know is this story of his Italian upbringing. Perhaps you can fill in the missing pieces using only the nine letters in NORMAN KAY.
Each blank is a four- or five-letter word.
Norman was born in an outlying suburb, where his family owned a countryside .
After years of schooling he decided to enlist in the so he could the world.
Norman’s first adventure was at sea, where he was attacked by a shark and a eel.
“I’m , thanks to this wet suit,” but with his life running , Norman went home.
As he walked into the kitchen, the was unmistakable; his mother was cooking .
“Hi Mom,” Norman said, “I won’t let this mishap me, since I was born with great .
“I’m going to make my right here in my hometown, and some day I’ll be the .”
Challenge yourself! Find 60 common words of five or more letters using the letters in: BRIDGE CLUB
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AnswersBridge Groaners: 1. Root, 2. Roth, 3. Rodwell
4. Hamman, 5. Deas, 6. Freeman, 7. Seamon
8. Wei, 9. Nickell, 10. Miller
What’s In a Name? (Other answers are possible)
1. Roy Green, Joseph Silver, Sam Gold
2. Bobby Wolff, Roy Fox, Henry Baer
3. Alan Oaks, Bill Root, Nadine Wood
4. Frank King, Cliff Bishop, Gaylor Kasle
Bridge Chain: Bidder, Rebids, Raised, Spread
Spades, Passer, Pauses, Shapes, Cashes
What bridge duffers do: “Push cards”
Hidden Names: 1. John Gerber, 2. Edgar Kaplan
3. Alvin Roth, 4. Paul Soloway, 5. Charles Goren
6. Alvin Landy, 7. Lew Mathe, 8. George Rapee
9. Harry Fishbein, 10. Bobby Goldman
Bidding Mix-Up: 1. Overcall, 2. Blackwood
3. Weak two-bid, 4. Penalty double, 5. Splinter bid
6. Negative double, 7. Five-card majors
8. Grand slam force, 9. Preemptive bid
Carding Mix-Up: 1. Opening lead, 2. Falsecard
3. Attitude signal, 4. Trump endplay
5. Backward finesse, 6. Dummy reversal
7. Coup en passant
Conventional Quiz: Conventional! In bridge, the term describes a bid with an unusual or nonstandard meaning. Compare this to its non-bridge usage to mean usual or standard, as in “conventional manner” or “conventional warfare.”
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What’s My Name? (Other answers are possible)
1. George Coffin, 2. Bobby Nail, 3. Mark Lair
4. Sidney Lenz, 5. Barry Crane, 6. Cliff Bishop
7. Norman Kay, 8. Tobias Stone, 9. Ralph Katz
10. Lou Bluhm
Unusual Paragraph: The paragraph has no ‘e’ — the most common letter in the English language.
Scrambled Names: 1. Doug Henry
2. Dan Morse, 3. Sue Sachs, 4. Steve Sion
All-Time Best Seller: C. By a long shot! If you had any trouble with this, you’re a sick puppy.
Dummy Technique: Ventriloquist! Mr. South had signed a contract to perform with his dummy at five nightclubs, which he managed to fulfill despite some hardships. Did I mention bridge? Read it again.
Historical Facts:
A. George Rapee. Rapee’s partner Samuel Stayman wrote about it and popularized it, hence the Stayman name became attached; but Rapee was the inventor.
B. Easley Blackwood. OK, this was easy, but rumors are that he stole it from my uncle Easily Pavlicek.
C. Harold Vanderbilt. On a cruise in 1925 he devised the scoring tables, which were so magnificently balanced that they have survived to this day with only a few adjustments.
Norman the Conqueror: Roman, manor, many
Army, roam, mako, moray, okay, rayon, amok
aroma, okra, annoy, karma, mark, mayor
Bridge Club: I found 66 (Others are possible)
bedbug, bible, bluebird, blued, bluer, blurb
bribe, bribed, bride, bridge, bridle, budge
bugle, bugled, bugler, build, builder, bulge
bulged, burble, burbled, burgle, buried, cider
clubbed, clued, cribbed, cried, crude, cruel
cubed, curbed, curdle, cured, curled, debug
dirge, dribble, gerbil, gibber, girdle, glibber
glide, glider, glued, grubbed, gruel, guide
guild, guile, idler, lucid, lured, lurid
rebuild, relic, ribbed, riced, ridge, riled
rubbed, rubble, ruled, uglier, ulcer, urged
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© 2007 Richard Pavlicek