Follow-up on sluff - play hooky, slack off

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Aug 9, 2011, at 10:47 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>
> On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 9:51 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> 1978 Â  Â Detroit Free Press 2 Apr. 19 c/3 Â  East
>> is now squeezed in the red suitsè˙∆e must either
>> give up a trick to the jack of hearts or
>
> _sluff_
>
>> two diamonds, which sets up declarer's third diamond.
>>
>
> So, _sluff_ in the sense of "discard" in a card game *isn't* only a BE thing!
>
> I never cease to be amazed by the impenetrability of the Cotton
> Curtain. You really *do* never know!

I must have learned that from my grandmother, since she was the one we usually played hearts and other card games with. She was white and born in Seattle in 1912 or 1913.

As a kid, I understood this to mean something like "be sneaky and get rid of the card" since the pass at the start of the game allows players to set themselves up to be able to sluff.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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