The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats

The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats
By:Edward McPherson
Published on 2009-10-13 by Harper Collins



There is one card game that towers above all others as the most intelligent, intricate, and psychologically absorbing ever to be invented. It has a rich history. It's played and loved by some of the world's most famous and influential people. And it's not the one that's currently on television twenty-four hours a day. In 1925 Harold Stirling Vanderbilt invented modern bridge, and a national craze was born. In the 1930s, bridge was even bigger than baseball. Its devotees would eventually include the Marx Brothers, George Burns, Wilt Chamberlain, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played to unwind before the Normandy invasion. Today bridge players number about twenty-five million in the U.S. alone; current celebrity addicts include Warren Buffett (who goes by the online handle |T-Bone|), Bill Gates, Hugh Hefner, Sting, a sitting Supreme Court justice, and the guys from Radiohead. In this spirited homage, Edward McPherson recounts the history of the game while attempting to master its deep mysteries in time to compete at the North American Bridge Championships in Chicago. Barely able to shuffle cards let alone play bridge, he sets out to discover why the game became and remains such a popular pastime, stopping in Dallas, Kansas City, Gatlinburg, Gettysburg, Las Vegas, and London. He focuses on a handful of professionals and eager but fumbling amateurs, and the characters he meets convince him that in a game that pits mind against mind, close attention to the cards often reveals much about those sitting at the table. He attempts to learn from bridge's devoted fans—from white-haired grannies and international playboys to teenage pros and billionaires—how its legacy can be preserved for future generations. And along the way, he picks up a playing partner of his own: Tina, a New York octogenarian with sharp card skills and energy to burn. Insightful, funny, and steeped in respect for bridge, The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats is an affectionate view of a grand game by an outsider trying to make his way into the inner circle.

This Book was ranked at 14 by Google Books for keyword celebrity picks.

Book ID of The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats's Books is PA6_zKPstOkC, Book which was written byEdward McPhersonhave ETAG "oNRDvIY0d44"

Book which was published by Harper Collins since 2009-10-13 have ISBNs, ISBN 13 Code is 9780061850004 and ISBN 10 Code is 0061850004

Reading Mode in Text Status is true and Reading Mode in Image Status is false

Book which have "368 Pages" is Printed at BOOK under CategoryGames and Activities

This Book was rated by 1 Raters and have average rate at "4.0"

This eBook Maturity (Adult Book) status is NOT_MATURE

Book was written in en

eBook Version Availability Status at PDF is falseand in ePub is true

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