Complete suits: A whist hand against all odds

each were dealt a complete suit of cards

what do you think? genuine or bull?

Even more amazing than being dealt complete suits, that lady has four arms and hands!



Slow news day in Stratford-upon-Avon, eh?

I think they sorted the cards and gave every body a suit. What game where they playing to deal 13 cards to each player? Hearts?
The player with the clubs shot the moon if they where playing hearts. It is impossible or at least extremely unlikely to deal a shuffled deck that way.

Bridge requires a 13 card hand.

I suspect it's more likely some sort of bad shuffle led to this occurring, which makes it rather less than the odds quoted.

It was whist, an old English trick-taking game. 13 cards each from a shuffled deck. Probably bull, but possible, if you think about all the hands of hearts, bridge, whist, etc. that have been played in the past few hundred years.

I doubt that even every person in the world playing bridge, whist or hearts for every second of their existence from the beginning of time until now would be dealt that hand. Seems like somebody played a practical joke. There are just some things that are outside the realm of probability.

I first heard of this "event" back in the '50s or very early '60s, supposedly occurring at a ladies' bridge party. The outside analysis then suggested that the most likely scenario, other than fraud, was a brand new deck of cards with two perfect shuffles before the deal. The cut would only determine which player got which suit.

While I accept that such an event could arise without fraud, I am extremely skeptical that it has happened as many times as I have heard variations of the story.