The Beer Card

Many people will know about the Beer Card but I am sure that some will not. The basic idea is that you try to win the last trick with the seven of diamonds – the Beer Card. If you succeed, all those involved in this little side game – your partner, teammates, friends etc – have to buy you a drink. If, on the other hand, you fail to take an opportunity to win the ¨7 at trick 13 and one of the group notices, you are the one who owes the drinks.
There are different ways of playing this game. In Britain, it does not count if diamonds are trumps, while the Australians, who look for an excuse to drink even more beer, do not make this exception. By agreement, a partnership on defence can combine to attempt to win the beer card, in which case their teammates will owe the drinks but not the partner of the successful player.

If you make less tricks than you should have done because of an attempt to win the beer card, you are punished by being the drinks buyer. And if you are defending and allow declarer to win the beer card when you could have prevented it, that is another expensive error you have made.

An otherwise dull deal can be enlivened by the side-play around the beer card and, in particular, if all four players at the table are involved, the play can become quite involved. For example, declarer may look for a squeeze for his tenth trick in 3NT, even though he has ten tricks already – he wants a line that permits trick thirteen to be won with the ¨7. And if a defender is being squeezed, it must not be diamonds that he unguards if declarer possesses the crucial card.

Frances Hinden and Jeffrey Allerton, winners of the Swiss Pairs in Brighton are beer card afficianados but clearly their opponents were not on a couple of deals from that Championship.

Match 6. Board 18. N/S Vul. Dealer East.
	ª 7 6 4 © 10 7 5 3 ¨ A 7 4 § Q 10 4
ª 5 © K 9 2 ¨ K J 8 6 § 8 7 5 3 2		ª A K 9 8 © A Q J 8 ¨ 2 § K J 9 6
	ª Q J 10 3 2 © 6 4 ¨ Q 10 9 5 3 § A

West	North	East	South
	Allerton		Hinden
-	-	1©	1ª
2©	2ª	4©	All Pass

Hinden led the queen of spades and declarer won the ace and ruffed a spade then played a club to the jack and ace. The trump return was won in hand and a diamond led to the king and ace. Back came a second trump, this time won in dummy. Declarer played a club to the king, South discarding a diamond, then gave up a club, with South throwing a spade.

Now declarer ruffed the four of diamonds return, cashed the ace of trumps and king of spades, and played the winning club, ruffed by North. While all this was going on, South and dummy pitched all their diamonds, so at trick thirteen Allerton was on lead with the beer card to cash. Getting 4© two down was a useful matchpoint result, but winning the beer card was a nice bonus.

Match 8. Board 4. All Vul. Dealer West.
	ª K 8 7 © Q 9 4 ¨ K Q § Q 10 8 4 2
ª A 5 2 © A K 7 6 2 ¨ J 10 9 5 § 5		ª 10 6 3 © J 10 ¨ A 8 2 § A K 9 7 3
	ª Q J 9 4 © 8 5 3 ¨ 7 6 4 3 § J 6

West	North	East	South
	Hinden		Allerton
1©	Pass	2§	Pass
2¨	Pass	2ª	Pass
2NT	Pass	3©	All Pass

East's sequence looks forcing to me but obviously West did not see it that way as he passed out 3©.
Hinden led a low club to dummy’s ace and declarer cashed the §K to pitch a spade loser. Next he ran the ©J to the queen and Hinden switched to a low spade for the ace. Now declarer made the curious play of exiting with his spade loser. He ruffed the spade continuation and played the jack of diamonds for the queen and ace then cashed the ©10. The ¨2 went to the ten and king and declarer ruffed a club return and drew trumps. Out of trumps, declarer could not unblock the diamonds so cashed then from the top and the ¨7 once again won the last trick. An almost double dummy effort on the part of declarer to concede the beer card and justify the bidding by making only nine tricks.

Board 9. E/W Vul. Dealer North.
	ª 2 © 10 8 6 5 3 ¨ K Q 8 2 § Q 4 3
ª A K 10 © K J 9 4 ¨ 6 5 4 § A 7 5		ª J 5 4 © Q ¨ A J 10 9 7 § J 9 6 2
	ª Q 9 8 7 6 3 © A 7 2 ¨ 3 § K 10 8

West	North	East	South
-	Pass	Pass	2ª
2NT	Pass	3NT	All Pass

Deals like this one from the Swiss Teams are fraught with danger for those of us who play for the Beer Card. The lead was the singleton spade to the queen and ace and declarer played a diamond to the jack and continued with the ¨10 to North’s queen. Now North switched to a heart for his partner’s ace. South switched to a low club.
If the ©10 is coming down declarer has the rest of the tricks and must win the §A then cash out, making the last trick with the ¨7. If the ©10 is not coming down there is unlikely to be a squeeze because declarer does not have the communications to squeeze North in hearts and clubs. But now the way to make the last trick with the Beer Card is to duck the club, win any return and cash out, leaving the diamonds to last.

Well, the odds are that the ©10 will not fall, so the correct play must be to duck the club and now declarer has the rest and, as already discussed, can make the last trick with the Beer Card. That wins him his beer, but what if he was wrong and the ©10 was falling all along? Now he may have won the Beer Card at trick 13, but he has dropped a trick in the process and that means that it is he who must buy the beer for partner, and not the normal way around!