OOps!
Here are two short entries that are very alike. I think they date from the ’70’s. It seems to me that I was at the tournaments when they occurred.
Mike Lawrence was playing in the Life Masters’ Pairs in the Summer Nationals with a student. Mike felt they needed a good last round to qualify for the finals. Unfortunately, his partner got to play the hand on the final board and did not give it its best play, to say the least.
As Mike explained it afterwards, “I was so upset with my partner’s play I dropped my whole hand. Most of the cards just happened to land in my partner’s lap.”
New York City expert, Paul Trent, was playing with a partnert who so misplayed the hand that Paul grabbed the cards and tore them to bits. His opponents, seeing this, screamed for a director.
When the director reached their table, the opponents pointed to the bits on the floor and complained. The director asked, ” Paul, did you tear up these cards?”
Very meekly, Paul responded, “No, I dropped them on the floor, and they broke.”
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Bridge-related
I remember the Paul Trent story. The director was Maury Braunstein. It probably happened in the late 60s.
Maury used to tell another story about a pair of priests who were playing a grand very slowly. Maury went over to the table and said, “Our fathers, who art in seven, hurried be thy game.”