Follow-up on sluff - now "hearts"

[Alice Faber]

On 8/9/11 2:47 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 8/9/2011 02:12 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> I used to play hearts, but I don't recall hearing "slough/sluff" with
> it (New York/New Engand).  Dangerous cards, such as high hearts,
> might be "passed" or "passed off" to one's neighbor.  And during
> play, hears were not passively sluffed, but rather forcefully and
> venomously imposed on the trick-winner.  (Nothing to do with
> snakeskin, however.)

I learned to play bridge in the late 60s and haven't played much since
then. I recall sluffing/sloughing (never knew how to spell it) as
discarding unwanted cards when you were unable to follow suit. I have a
vague recollection of a strategy being "a ruff and a sluff", with ruff
meaning trump.


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Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
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