Over the years I’ve been accused of not playing with a full deck, which regrettably had nothing to do with bridge. But that’s history! I am now on the road to recovery, and last month I reached the half-way mark.
So you don’t believe I could be half recovered? Well, then as evidence I offer the following deal, where South opens 2 NT and is left to play there. Look carefully and you will see that each side holds half the deck. Besides the 20-20 HCP split, each side has two of every card rank. Unfortunately, all N-S honor cards are in one hand, which makes the play a nightmare for declarer.
A diamond lead strikes me as revolting, so most expert Wests would start the 9. East can deduce that South has five diamonds, so a heart shift stands out, after which routine defense puts declarer down three. In fact if South exits with the Q at Trick 6, he can be set four.
The only bright spot for South is his sparkling diamond suit, an ace-high flush, which is the winning poker hand at the table. East would be second with an ace-high straight, followed by North with a nine-high straight, and West with a measly two-pair (nines and sixes). Note that the equality of card ranks rules out any full house or four-of-a-kind, and a straight flush is impossible given the fixed East-West hands.
Anyone with half a brain — and I must be up to 5/8 by now — knows that bridge is a superior game to poker. Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to make South the winner where it counts:
Arrange the N-S cards so South can make his contract.
Goal is to win the most tricks, and secondarily for South to have the worst poker hand.Before reading the winning solutions, venture your best guesses:
1. What is the most tricks N-S can win? 7 8 9 10 11
2. How many HCP in the winning South hand? 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
3. What is the generic pattern of the winning South hand? 4-3-3-3 4-4-3-2 4-4-4-1 5-4-2-2 6-3-2-2
4. What is the worst possibility for South’s best poker hand? 2P-3322A 2P-JJ22A 2P-AA44K ST-AKQJT FL-QT743
*Solvers had to construct N-S hands for their solution. Multiple choice was only added for this writeup.
The object was to arrange the North-South cards of the above deal so that South could make 2 NT against any defense, which was relatively easy. The real challenge was to win the most tricks, with ties broken by the worst South poker hand, and lastly by date and time of entry. Ranked below are the solvers who managed to win nine tricks.
In the attempt to win more tricks, the obvious move was to give South a long spade suit. Unfortunately, this was detrimental to the tiebreaker by giving South a good poker hand.
Jim Munday: Clearly 3 NT can be made; working on 4 NT…
Giving South a sixth spade was a valiant attempt to win 10 tricks, alas to no avail.
Lixin Zheng: Clubs provide an entry to finesse spades for five tricks. With diamonds frozen, I think West is forced to give a trick.
This solver brought back memories of Wild Bill Hickok, who reportedly held aces and eights (two-pair) when he was shot and killed by Jack McCall. (For my take on this dark history see Dead Man’s Deal.)
Nicholas Greer: Nine tricks on any lead… My attempts to win 10 with a long suit all failed because of entry and tempo problems; the defense can either win an honor trick in each suit or the black aces and two heart tricks before I can win long tricks in a black suit.
I also did not see a way to win 10 tricks, but as the composer of this puzzle I had to be certain. Therefore, I put my software tools to work, which proved it was impossible. Nine tricks is the limit.
On a cold winter night in the middle of summer, this solver echoed my theme by cutting South’s pair of eights in half.
Charles Blair: Brrr! Frozen suits!
Only three solvers managed to give South the worst possible bridge-poker hand: threes and twos (two-pair). South’s remaining nine cards must be A-K-Q-J-9-8-7-6-4 to eliminate a straight or higher pair, and at most four cards in any suit to eliminate a flush.
Richard Stein: South wins nine tricks with the worst possible poker hand. Deal probably gets passed out though!
Cyrus Hettle: The black sevens and fours can be interchanged.
Curiously, the worst winning bridge-poker hand is far less common than the best.2P-3322A is the best in 2.8 million hands, while a royal flush occurs in 1.3 billion.Pop Quiz: What is the (1) most common, and (2) least common winning hand?
A visit to my neurologist last week confirmed my 5/8 capacity, and I am now aiming at the 3/4 mark. If “at least one of two finesses” can make it, certainly I can too, though my doctor warns me not to be optimistic. “Be happy with five eighths,” he says, “which exceeds the ability of most club players; and if you’re lucky enough to hit eleven sixteenths, you’ll be a peer of the tournament crowd.” But what does he know! I expect to cement two halves into a whole by the end of the year.
Also concerned about fractions:
Tina Denlee: In French having “half a brain” is avoir une case en moins. I finally had to be tested,and it turned out I have une case en trop, or roughly 1 + 1/16.
I think you should get a second opinion. My estimate would be 3/8, tops.But even so, a definite edge over this guy with a ceiling of about 1/3:
Charles Blair: Nice of you to rule out three-of-a-kind, but how about a kangaroo straight?
1. Most common is an ace-high straight (17.3 billion hands).2. Least common is four twos with a five kicker (64 hands).
© 2026 Richard Pavlicek
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek