How Jim Met Ken; A Tale of Old Araby

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As Ken has stated, I met him while we were both working as mercenaries in the Kalahari Desert.

Shortly after my arrival in-country, I had fortunately developed the case of severe gastric dyspepsia that he mentioned; I say fortunately because if I had not been deathly ill at the time we traveled together, Ken might never have approached me in the first place, I would probably have given up bridge as a lost cause, and our intriguing stories would never have existed to be shared with the world.

Now we did indeed play a bit of rubber-bridge in our tent that first night, but my recollection of the most interesting hand
of the evening is quite different than his.

I had opened 2 No-Trump holding 20 high card points and flat distribution, with the auction ending at 3 No-Trump after my partner Abdullah transferred to hearts.

After a bit of thought, Ken led the diamond 7 against my contract.

When the dummy came down, holding the stiff Ace-King of hearts myself, I saw no entry whatsoever to Abdullah's 6-card suit.

Frankly I could see no hope at all for 3 No Trump to make. It looked like down 1 at the very best.

WHY oh WHY hadn't I remembered that we were playing rubber-bridge, not match-point?

Four hearts was the obvious contract.  The extra 10 points for making 4 No-Trump rather than 4 hearts meant virtually nothing at all in rubber bridge, and NOW it looked like I was going down to boot!! Oh well... live and learn.

Holding the A-Q-x of diamonds opposite dummy's J-x-, I played low from dummy while Ken's partner Fatima, Abdullah's number one concubine, played the 10.

For some odd reason, it suddenly occurred to me that a bizarre play was in order and remembering a hand I saw in an ancient 1964 ACBL Bridge Bulletin, I took Fatima's 10 of diamonds with the ACE!

Now, it looked as if she had the Queen as the King was held by Ken  ...I hoped!

I played the Ace and King of hearts, then led a low diamond toward dummy's bare Jack. Ken played low as he must have been convinced in his steel-trap mind that Fatima was marked with the Queen.

Voila; the Jack held! The lovely Fatima slowly shook her head as if to say "Sorry partner, but I don't have the Queen", and I ran dummy's hearts not only making the contract, but 2 overtricks in the process as I was able to execute a double squeeze against my opponents.

I'll never forget Ken sitting there discarding as I ran dummy's hearts, muttering to himself; That was a $5 play. Yes Sir that was a $5 play.

It was a huge compliment for me as I was only holding about 100 master points at the time. Even if I'd been more experienced it still would have been enormous praise as Ken has always been a top player.

When I returned to Georgia, he graciously took me under his wing and while we didn't sit opposite each other that much except at the dinner table, he patiently answered my every question at length.

Due in large part to Ken's guidance, I have advanced to the level of  Silver Life Master, a rank which I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd ever achieve.

In gratitude to Ken, and to the delight of all I might add, I forswore all consumption of both dates and couscous thus eliminating my odoriferous, socially embarrassing intestinal maladies forever.

To be honest, that was a pre-condition of Ken's instruction, but being back in Georgia, I had absolutely no trouble substituting pinto beans and cabbage for my former (and favorite) Arabic culinary delights.