APRIL FOOL'S DAY

For a game on April Fool's Day, what better way to make sure every player has the same card as dummy?  The players will bid the hand, as if nothing was wrong. . .but then when dummy comes down - they can all claim they have a duplicate card!  (Because they would.)

How was it done?  

It took some planning; but figuring on three boards at a table, boards 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, etc (first board of the first round for each table) were taken from a different set of boards.  It needs to be the same type of board (either aluminum or white plastic, or whatever) - but they should be from a different set.

Then, it was made certain that four of these boards (1, 4, 7, 10) were all decks of the same color.  Aces were removed, so each hand in each board had 12 random cards.  Then the aces were sorted and replaced in each board, with all four ♥As put in Board 1's hands.  The process was repeated (all four ♦As in Board 4's hands, etc.) for all the second-set dummy boards.

This process was repeated for the next four tables with another four boards of the same color.  It only has to be done three times (12 boards) for a 12-table game, since each table will only get one pranked board.

At the start of the game, all seemed well until the dummies came down for each table.  You should have heard the competing "Director!" calls.

Once the jig was up, the second-set dummy boards were removed and replaced with the actual first board for the first round for each table.   This was hopefully the first (and only) April Fool's joke for the Non-Life Masters that day.

A couple of notes on this prank:  If you ever want to replicate it, be sure to use aces, as it will be more obvious to players right away.  You won't want a table getting to trick six before realizing they're wasting their time.

Also, at one table this prank backfired and the joke was on the Director.  The first board at that table was too evenly distributed, and it got passed out while everyone else was bidding.  The result was that they were already on the second board when the rest of the room was in a ruckus.

VALENTINE'S DAY

So. . .Valentine's Day pranks!  They're not easy to come by.  But every player in the February 14th game here at the Community Center had their guaranteed first Valentine of the day. . .by getting the same low heart in every single hand.   In other words, every East had the ♥4 in every hand they played today.  Same for the other players, but with a different heart.

How was it done?  

When using software to create random deals, for club play or tournaments, there are a couple of things you CAN do to make them a little less completely random.  For example, you can tell the computer to make sure someone has at least 12 HCPs in their hand, so you'll know the hand is opened by most tables and not passed out.   This example, and a few others like it, would never be used in club or tournament play - they are meant for teaching classes and hands used to learn certain situations that come up when playing bridge.

But on a day like Valentine's Day, you can tell the computer to generate 36 random (or mostly random in this case) hands with the following exception:   You want the ♥2 to be in West's hand for all 36 boards.  Oh - and also that you want North to always have the ♥5.  South and East should each have their own personal heart on Valentine's Day, too.

Then the computer fills in the remaining 48 cards for each board on a totally random basis.

After the 36 boards are created, hand records are computed and printed, the cards are shipped off to be made for the game, and then you just sit back and wait to see if anyone notices they've had the same card in their hand the entire morning.  (No one did.)

Of course, you can only use low hearts in this situation; you could not use face cards, since that would have a more significant impact on the hands.  The only real issue for setting the hands as they were for Valentine's Day by guaranteeing a heart each time was that nobody had a heart void.  (And who would want a heart void on Valentine's Day?)

The real question is what to about the boards when it's St. Patricks Day. . .since we DO have a game on Thursday March 17th.