ReadersDigestAustraliaNewZealand-March2018

March• 2018 | 83

READER’S DIGEST

WEALTHY

ENTHUSIASTS

BACK TOP

PLAYERS WITH

RETAINERS AND

BONUSES

cheat. “But it’s an unwritten rule that
you do not publicly accuse anyone –
even if you’resure,” says Steve Wein-
stein, a top American player. It was a
Catch-22 that Fisher seemed to delight
in flaunting, shrugging off questions
about his suspicious play. “He had the
Nietzschean superman personality,”
says Fred Gitelman, a professional
player who has won championships
worldwide. “He just thought he was in
a different league.”

CONTRACT BRIDGE
isbuiltontherulesof
the 18th-century Brit-
ishcardgamewhist.
Four people play in
two-person partner-
ships. The player to the
dealer’s left leads with
acardofanysuit,and
each player in succes-
sionplaysacardofthesuitled;the
highestcardwinsthetrick.
It’sasimplegame,slightlycompli-
catedbytheexistenceofthetrump:
acardinasuitthatoverrulesalloth-
ers. In whist, trump is determined
randomly. In auction bridge, a game
popularised in England in 1904, each
hand has an opening ‘auction’, where
theteams,communicatingsolelyby
way ofspokenbids establish which
(ifany)suitwillbetrumpandhow
many tricks they think they can take.
Pairs who take more tricks than con-
tractedforareawardedextrapoints.
Contract bridge emerged from

refinements American railroad mag-

nate Harold S. Vanderbilt introduced

in1925.Hesoughttospiceupauction

bridge by awarding escalating bonus

points to pairs who took the great-

estriskintheopeningauction,and

imposed steep point deductions on

those who failed to make the tricks

contractedfor.ThusdidapoliteBrit-

ish parlour game take on some of the

sweaty-palmedexcitementofthe

big-money trading of

Wa ll St reet.

The American Con-

tract Bridge League

(ACBL), the game’s

governing body in

North America, lists

only 168,000 mem-

bers,withamedian

age of 71.

Yet the professional

tournament game is a

serious pursuit, with wealthy enthusi-

asts assembling stables of top players,

paying them retainers and bonuses –

all for the privilege of playing hands

with the pros in important tourna-

ments. With six world championships

under her belt, Gail Greenberg, one of

the game’s greatest female champions,

says that such paydays have fuelled

cheating by players hoping to be re-

cruited by deep-pocketed sponsors,

or to hang onto the one they’ve got.

Pairsareforbiddentosaywhat

high cards they hold or in what suit

theymightbestrong–exceptby

way of the koan-like bids (‘Two no