How many times have you reached a contract with tricks to burn? For example, 7 NT with 16 cashers would have three wasted tricks; but do they really have to burn, burn, burn? Not in my ring of fire! Imagine this deal:
Declarer has 24 cashing tricks! In real life the limit is 13, so 11 would burn. But in surreal life all discards are in a green suit, so we can enjoy every one of them. After a spade lead, South’s tricks are cashed first (North pitching green cards) then North is reached with a heart for 12 more. If West instead leads a heart, North’s tricks are cashed first, then South is reached with a spade for 12 more — and a beer!
On this deal N-S have all 40 HCP, but the feat can be done with fewer. For example, each major queen could be swapped with the 10 to achieve the same result with 36 HCP by finessing; and each minor jack could be swapped with the 10, reducing to 34 HCP.
Note that West and East also discard green cards, so they can never be squeezed out of a stopper.
Communication between the N-S hands is essential in a real suit (not green). Otherwise only 13 tricks could be cashed by the winner of the first trick — and for the task at hand you’d be down, down, down as the flames went higher. Which brings us to the puzzle:
In notrump with best defense and without losing a trick…
1. What is the most tricks declarer can cash? 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 32
2. What is the fewest HCP required to achieve this? 20 21 22 23 24 26 28 30
3. How many void suits will the optimal deal have? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
*Solvers had to construct a complete deal for their solution. Multiple choice was only added for this writeup.
The object was to construct a deal where declarer (South) in notrump, against best defense, can cash the most tricks without losing a trick. Further goals were to use the fewest North-South HCP and to win the last trick with the 7 (beer card). In this fantasy puzzle “green cards” are discarded if unable to follow suit, though communication between the North-South hands is essential in a real suit.
The top 10 solvers are listed below, though 10th place was arbitrary; five others won 25 tricks (with 23-31 HCP) but I liked the construction with 19 HCP despite winning a trick less. Ties are broken by date and time of entry.
When I first uploaded the puzzle, the goal was stated simply as “What is the most tricks declarer can cash?” The first entry I received was quite a surprise, as it beat my expected best solution. Cyrus Hettle won 25 tricks with only 18 HCP!
How can declarer win 25 tricks with West on lead? Easy! After West wins the first 12 collecting 35 green cards, North wins the next 12, and South the last 13, including a beer at Trick 37! Note the precise location of the 2; else “best defense” could hold declarer to 13 tricks by leading the 2 to East then locking the South hand.
Cyrus Hettle: I also tried to take 25 with a throw-in (win 12, lose some, regain the lead for 13) but couldn’t do it without using too many HCP. And my nefarious dreams of taking 26 tricks, where “best defense” takes more tricks than they are entitled to, even though declarer takes extra tricks too, are definitely not kosher.
I replied to Cyrus (and clarified in the puzzle) that the goal was intended to be without losing a trick. Less than 10 minutes later, he submits the optimal solution. Is this guy clever or what?
Puzzle within a Puzzle
The above deal could be modified to involve all four hands:West wins tricks, then North, then East, and finally South.How many total tricks could be played?
When I first saw the following construction with only 19 HCP, I thought Charles Blair had found a superior solution — until I noticed that only 24 tricks could be won.
Charles Blair: [On dummy’s winners] declarer pitches the 2 and none of his diamonds.
Unfortunately, if South discards a real card, he can win only 12 tricks at the end (24 combined); and retaining the 2 would be even worse, losing the beer as well. “Oh, but the fire went wild…” agrees the Man in Black.
Except for suit identity and swapping the N-S hands or E-W blank honors, the top seven solvers produced the same layout:
Foster Tom: Because we need a real suit for communication, 25 tricks is the maximum. To do this, one hand must not waste a real card on the opening lead, so it needs two voids.
One solver even supplied a credible auction for his construction:
Martin Vodicka: After a 7 opening from North, and a 7 sacrifice from West, South gambles with 7 NT. He will probably not know he is underbidding by 12 tricks!
Puzzle within a Puzzle (solution)
The intuitive answer of 49 (12+12+12+13) is wrong.Whoever follows to the first spade lead is deprivedof a cashable trick, so the correct answer is 48.
It’s hard to believe my favorite singer-songwriter has been gone almost 23 years. Seems like just yesterday I was turning on the T.V. to watch a live special that began “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” Or maybe it was yesterday, albeit recorded, in his haunting performance of “Man in Black” on YouTube. Or somewhere in between, as “I Walk the Line” became a declarer-play challenge.
You might wonder: Did Johnny Cash have any connection to bridge? A recent Google search discovered that he did! Alas, it was his recording of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Close enough! My bids often end up there.
“I hear the train a-comin’…” The Man in Black must leave for his show at Folsom Prison, so our men in green will finish it up:
Charles Blair: In the late sixties, a local newspaper had a column of horse-racing tips by “Green Suit Harry.”
Prahalad Rajkumar: Tricks to burn… and a quiet tip for the bartender. That, my dear Watson, is the beer-winning reasoning.
Nicholas Greer: It doesn’t matter [in the puzzle] but do defenders attempt to prevent the beer if it won’t cost a trick, or do they assist declarer? I don’t know of a definitive reference on beer ethics.
Do some research and write a book. For a fiery ring, call it “Greer on Beer!”
Acknowledgments to Johnny Cash (pictured) 1932-2003© 2026 Richard Pavlicek
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek