Grasp Bridge In The Menagerie Drafted By Victor Mollo Text

won't do you any good if you don't play bridge, but for the bridge players in the world, it is a very funny and clever book, Lots of improbable hands and unlikely endplays, Loved it! Most bridge players know this book well, and frequently refer to its two main characters, the Hideous Hog and the Rueful Rabbit, The running joke is that the Hog bidsNT because he wants to be declarer then the Rabbit doesn't find the percentage play, but what he does works anyway because of the distribution of the cards.


If you're not a bridge player, you'll just have to trust me: it's funny! At least, it is the way Mollo tells the story,



OK, here's an attempt to explain the running joke, By the way, if this isn't obvious: I am far from being an expert bridge player, but you only need a basic understanding of the game to appreciate the book.
The Hog bidsNT Three No Trumps so that he can become declarer, i, e. assume responsibility for playing the cards, He's being condescending and rude in not bidding according to the normal rules his reasoning, which is transparent to the other players, is that most important thing is not to get to the best contract, but to make sure he's in charge.
In Bridge parlance, he is "hogging the contract", hence his name,

Once he's in the driver's seat, he figures out some terribly clever scheme, which absolutely optimizes his probability of success, He's a big expert. The Rabbit, in contrast, knows nothing, and makes some terrible decision, which is only going to work in the vanishingly unlikely case that the

cards are distributed in exactly the right way.
But bridge is a game of luck, and the Rabbit is phenomenally lucky, His guardian angel is alert, and the cards turn out to be just where they have to be in order for the Rabbit to triumph and the Hog to fail.


The Rabbit doesn't even understand he's been lucky, or grasp why the Hog is fuming, It's sort of the cardplay equivalent of the scene in Revenge of the Pink Panther where Peter Sellers is blithely walking around the fairground, not realizing thatof the world's top assassins are all unsuccessfully trying to kill him, but only managing to kill each other.


The book is funny because it's an exaggerated version of what you see all the time at the bridge table, People do clever things that don't work, and stupid things that do work, and the less skillful players often have no idea why the experts are cursing and groaning, Of course, the experts are experts because in the long run they do come out ahead,


If I had to criticize, I'd say that the constant squeeze hands get a bit repetitive, but that'd be nitpicking, The constructed hands here are hilarious, One of the funniest books I've read, The trouble with this series is that the wisdom is so couched in wellwritten humour there is a danger of missing it,

Still, what the hell, just read them for fun, That'll do fine. The characters at the Griffins Club established Mollo's reputation as one of bridge's most inspired and humorous writers, Now a fresh generation of readers will be able to enjoy the Hideous Hog and the Rueful Rabbit, .