Billiards Is a Good Game (1975)
&gt; After watching Michelson play bridge for a while, you could predict more or less the kind of mistake he would make, and it was not unrelated to the American champion’s description of his chess game. He would make a bid short of game, but, after getting the bid, would see that, if he took and made two long finesses, he could come in with a little slam. Of course, a little slam would make only a few points difference since he hadn’t bid it, but he would take the two finesses and not only lose both but lose his bid on an absolutely “lay-down hand.” He was a rather small man, as you know, and he would look with almost childlike incredulity at the ruined remains of his daring invention of two long finesses where none was a sure thing.<p>If anybody needs translation:<p>In bridge you bid how many tricks you will take; there are 13 tricks and the minimum bid is 7 (i.e. you will take over half).  If you make at least as many as you bid, your score is positive, if you make fewer than you bid your score is negative.  You get bonus points for bidding at a certain level; &quot;game&quot; is 9-11 tricks depending on the situation (10 tricks is the most common for reasons I won&#x27;t get into here).  &quot;small slam&quot; (or little slam in this article) is 12 tricks and &quot;grand slam&quot; is 13 tricks.<p>You have two opponents in bridge and a finesse is a play that depends on cards being in the correct opponents hand.  Most common is which opponent holds a king when you have an ace and a queen.  If you can force them to decide to play the king or not before you play, then you beat the king with an ace, or beat the lower card they play with the queen.  A &quot;long finesse&quot; (called a &quot;deep finesse&quot; today) requires more than one card to be in the correct position, so attempting one is a move of last resort.<p>Now the translation.  He bid to make 9 or 10 tricks, but saw that he could make 12 tricks if all of the cards were in the position maximally lucky for him.  Since he did not bid high enough to get the bonus for winning those, the reward is tiny, and he should just make the obvious plays to cover his bid.  Instead he took the risky play and ended up not even making the 9 or 10 that he bid.  This is the sort of mistake that even an intermediate bridge player learns not to make very quickly, but a beginner couldn&#x27;t make this mistake at all because they wouldn&#x27;t see the opportunity.  So Michelson is smart but a <i>terrible</i> bridge player.<p>I&#x27;m struggling to think of an equivalently bad play in poker; maybe staying in the pot when your hand is the low-pair after the flop and several others have already called?