March—We’re ALL Irish!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, lots of stuff happens in March… libraries suspend fines, Daylight Savings begins, National “Clean Up After Your Dog” Month, “Celebrate Ring-Dings” week… but for those of us with Irish ancestors (and the millions who claim them so they can celebrate) the only one that matters is St. Patrick’s Day.
St. Paddy’s Day is one of my favorite holidays because there’s no responsibility that goes with it, no meals to cook, no presents to buy. Right away, that’s a plus. But then it gets better. We’re supposed to adorn ourselves in something green and go out, party and celebrate. Do people get involved? How about this: normally on any given day 5.5 million pints of Guinness are sold. On St. Paddy’s? It jumps to 13 million! In Chicago, they throw 25 lbs. of green dye in the Chicago River! In New York (and other places), they throw parades! We can’t avoid the fun unless we hibernate.
A couple quick facts and we’ll get to work. The real St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. He was British and brought to Ireland as a Roman slave sometime in the fourth century. And did he drive the snakes out of Ireland? Nope, there were never any there in the first place.
Finally, is there any such thing as the Luck of the Irish? Ask any bridge player and get a different answer. The good news is we don’t need that proverbial luck. We’ve got our experts to help us replace delusions of luck with the surety of skills.
DAVID BIRD – When should second seat play high? How can we “kill the dummy”? What cards should we play to deceive the declarer? How can we take advantage of declarer error? See? No luck needed!
BEN NORTON – Ben’s presenting us with a very nice series of six hands, all on the burning question of whether to win or duck. Each hand illustrates a guideline to help us when faced with that paralyzing decision.
PAUL BOWYER – How can we pull tricks out of thin air? Paul shows how we can often get them from the opponent’s own trump suit. He also has some hands on “uppercuts,” one of my all-time favorite techniques.
And I’ve got two warm-up hands for all Faithful Readers, designed to make the opponents miserable.
MATTHIAS HUBERSCHWILLER – Matt rounds out our March issue with two quizzes, a series of quizzes on balancing, always a tough decision.
SO!! Pop that corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker and by the time it’s ready, our bridge game will be certainly improved.
Don't forget: if you like Marti's style, have a go with her Bridge Boot Camps. Click here to ask Marti about the schedule...
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