FOUR GRAND SLAMS

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1928, Page 11

FOUR GRAND SLAMS

FREAK BRIDGE HANDS. An amazing chance combination of cards in a game of auction bridge, by which the four players were each dealt a hand consisting of a complete suit, has occurred at the United Berkeley Club, Knightsbridge, states the London Daily Telegraph. The secretary of the club said to a reporter: “It is an event which 1 believe has not occurred more than two or three times in the history of the game. The chances against its happening must run into billions. We have played bridge here for twenty, five years, and every day between forty and fifty tables have been in use, but such a thing has never occurred before. I am quite certain of the genuineness of this incident. None of the players would for a moment think of doing it as a joke, and by a fortunate coincidence there was an independent witness, an onlooker who was waiting to cut in. “What happened was this. The pack had been played with several times, and it was shuffled and cut before dealing in the usual way. On viewing his hand the dealer called a grand slain in hearts, while the second player went seven spades. Therefore, the third and fourth players, who had the diamonds and clubs, could not reveal their strength in the auction. Then the hands were put down, and the players were nearly dumb with astonishment, for each had imagined that he or she was the only one with a complete suit. I was called up to examine the Jiands while they were still on the table. The. players were a city business man and three women, all members of the club.” Mr. R. F. Barney, Bayswater, one of the players, told a reporter that the players had reached the second hand of the first rubber. “My partner,” he said, “made the cards used in the next hand. When the cards were shuffled, I cut. I received the thirteen clubs. When the cards were shuffled, I guessed what had happened. It is certainly an amazing coincidence. I have only heard of it happening once, and that was in America.”