One of my favourite people in the world of bridge is the brilliant Bob Hamman from Dallas, who was at one time the acknowledged best player on the planet, and is not far off that even now.

Bob is a hugely strong character, big in stature and personality and can be sunshine one minute and a dark cloud the next!

My favourite Hamman story, and there are many, took place in San Antonio, Texas, where I was emceeing the ACBL Hall of Fame Awards and Bob was being inducted that year. We were all ready to start the black-tie dinner and awards ceremony but there was no sign of Hamman and no answer from his room..

Suddenly Bob appeared, sweating profusely in his dinner jacket to tell us that the elevator had dropped four floors from the 26th to the 22nd and they were stuck in there for ten minutes before they were rescued.

I remember saying something like, "Wow, you must have been petrified", to which he replied: "It wasn't fun, David, but just imagine if it had plunged all the way to the ground, every bridge player in the world would have moved up a notch!"

Humour, ego, brilliance, personality – Bob has it all!

Oh, and did I mention how well he plays the game? Look at this gem from the recent Beijing event, where he defended not only as if he could see all four hands, but also as if he could read declarers' minds.

The beauty about playing bridge at a competitive level is that no matter how good or bad your hand is, you have to maintain concentration or you can be punished. Put yourself in the west seat on the hand below.

Dealer South

None Vul

North

" A 10 6

K J

J 7 5 2

A K 6 2

West

" 8 2

Q 9 7

10 9 6

Q 9 8 4 3

Your opponents have bid to a grand slam on the following auction:

South North

1" 2

3" (1) 4 (2)

4 (2) 4 (2)

4NT (2) 5 (4)

5NT (4) 7" (6)

1. Usually shows a great suit and a good hand

2. All cue bids

3. Roman key card blackwood

4. 2 key cards

5. Kings?

6. I think I have enough for this bid

You lead a trump and declarer runs five rounds of trumps – you throw hearts as declarer's failure to scuff a heart suggests a singleton or doubleton ace. Declarer now plays a club to dummy and plays a low diamond to her queen . . . are you awake? What card did you play?

This is the full hand:

North

" A 10 6

K J

J 7 5 2

A K 6 2

West East

" 8 2 " 9 3

Q 9 7 8 6 5 4 3 2

10 9 6 K 3

Q 9 8 4 3 10 7 5

South

" K Q J 7 5 4

A 10

A Q 8 4

J

Did you play the ten or nine of diamonds under the queen? If you didn't, declarer has no losing options and must play the ace of diamonds, which brings down partners king and lands the slam.

If you did play the nine or ten, declarer can now play you to have started with 109 doubleton and partner with K63 and will cross to the board to play the diamond jack, hoping to crash your remaining 9 or 10 – and on this hand that would fail. I know, I know – you despare at ever seeing this! You are not alone!!