Thursday, August 11, 2022

Papa the Greek outdoes himself--or Greed can be a very bad thing

A robot tournament hand that came up the other day on BBO reminded me of several similar situations from Victor Mollo's wonderful Bridge in the Menagerie series. In these stories, Papa the Greek plays the role of S. J. Simon's "Unlucky Expert" while his frequent partner, Karapet Djoulikyan, we are told, is the unluckiest player in both hemispheres. 

So, please forgive me if I put names to the robot characters in my story. Since no great masterstroke was required to make this hand (just normal careful play), I assigned myself the role of Colin the Corgi, the facetious young man from Oxbridge. My partner was that inveterate point-counter, Walter the Walrus. 

As Karapet would surely have said after the hand, "If you're going to double based on your two aces, at least have the decency to cash them!"

+1680 was worth 96.5%, tying with two others and losing to one brave soul who "sent it back."

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