 Answers
Question 1 and Answer
At duplicate bridge there are TWO ways to make +270. One is to bid one notrump and win all 13 tricks.
What is the other way?
TWO notrump (Making seven). If you racked your brains on this one, I apologise.
Question 2 and Answer
On a certain deal North has as many High Card Points as South and East together; West has as many HCP as North and East together. East has more HCP than South, and no two players have the same number of HCP. How many HCP does each player have?
The deck has 40 HCP, so we have the equation: N+S+E+W=40. Since N=S+E and W=N+E, substitution produces 3S+4E=40, which has 4 integer solutions: S=12 E=1; S=8 E=4; S=4 E=7; S=0 E=10. The first two do not satisfy the condition that East has more HCP than South, and the last (S=0), is rejected because it gives North the same total as East. Hence, South has 4 HCP, East has 7, North 11 and West 18.
Question 3 and Answer
In rubber bridge it is possible to win a rubber without ever making a contract or defeating an opponent’s contract. How could this be done?
However unlikely, it is possible for one side to be set many times (-50), while claiming honours (+100 or +150), to produce a greater total than the opponents after they win two games and the rubber bonus.
Question 4 and Answer
A ‘Yarborough’ is defined as a bridge hand with no card above a nine.
What are the odds against being dealt five consecutive Yarboroughs?
- 625 million to 1.
- 228 billion to 1.
- Who cares.
C. If you actually tried to calculate this, you have absolutely no sense of priorities. The answer would be in the quadrillions. A little birdie told me it is 20,414,133,359,114,717 to 1.
Thank you to Marc Chawner
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