Dear Mr van Hoof,

As you probably know, some six months ago I was asked to play for the Bubbles team. I felt flattered. The team was by far the strongest in the country. They had won almost every team­of-four tournament the previous season, giving their sponsor a lot of publicity. Moreover, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I didn't.

Soon afterwards I was invited for a team meeting. I was supposed to come to a rather shabby pub outside town. I arrived at eight sharp but didn't see any familiar faces. So I asked the bartender for the bridge meeting and she directed me to a small room at the back of the establishment. I entered the badly lit room and it took a while before my eyes could pick out three men sitting at a table. They were probably my team-mates, but I couldn't be sure.

The man in the middle told me to sit down and handed me a board. 'Pick up the South cards, but don't sort them,' he said and so I did.

 One of the other guys took out the North cards, sorted them and spread them out on the table. It took me a while to get used to looking at an unsorted hand but then in the light of a candle I faced this single-dummy problem:

'This hand was recently played in the Botahall Tournament,' the man in the middle said. 'You declare Six Spades and the lead is the king of hearts. Plan the play.'

I looked at the hand and saw it was a simple matter of finding the trump queen. I couldn't see any further snags so I quickly responded. 'I win the first trick, cross to the ace of spades and play the jack of spades, finessing East for the queen.'

'Okay, you made the contract. Why did you play that way?" l don't know. I just guessed and I'm usually lucky. "There is no such thing as luck in bridge,' the third man interfered crossly. 'It's impossible to beat the odds.'

The man in the middle put his hand on my arm reassuringly and asked me: 'What do you think happened at the table?' 'How would I know?'

'Not so quickly. Look at your cards. After the hand was over, declarer put them back in the board without shuffling or rearranging them first. Players seldom do, you know. I asked you not to sort the hand. Which card is on the top?'

'It's the heart ace." And which cards come next?" Spade king, spade ten and heart six.'

Suddenly I understood. By looking at the cards I could see in exactly what order they were played in the tournament. So declarer took the first trick with the ace of hearts, laid down the king of spades and ran the ten. This lost to East's queen and he returned a heart for one down.

'At the other table declarer went one down!' I said, gasping for breath.

'Correct. You're a clever fellow. So in future, when playing for our team and you play the boards that have come from the other table, don't sort your cards unless you're capable of memorizing the order in which you picked them up.'

'But that's cheating!' I cried. 'No it's not,' the man on the left said. 'It's merely a not very well-known expert technique, called reading the opponents' cards. You're allowed to draw conclusions from their bidding and signaling, so this is also allowed. "This meeting is over,' the man in the middle said. 'Just do as you are told and you'll see that your game will improve.'

I was in a state of shock when I left the pub. In the next weeks I couldn't help testing my newly learned technique, however much I disapproved of it. It was amazing indeed how few bridge players shuffle their cards before putting them back in the board. Sometimes, I was able to follow the play at the other table from trick one to thirteen.

It didn't bring me much real benefit, though, but then, in my first tournament for the Bubbles team, the following hand occurred:

It was the second half of a tense match against a team of good, though rather inexperienced, players. The bidding was 1NT—3NT and I could be sure that it had been the same at the other table. The lead was the two of spades (small from an honour) and East inserted the king. To make the contract I needed three diamond tricks. If East had the ace of diamonds, I should hold up my ace of spades twice to guard against a 5-3 spade split. If West had it, I'd better win the first trick in order to keep another stopper in the spade suit. There I was in a 28 HCP 3NT and I needed to make a right guess to fulfil my contract.

I looked at my unsorted cards: the six of spades on top, then the jack of spades, ace of spades, ten of diamonds, two of clubs and four of clubs. So at the other table, declarer ducked the spade lead. His jack of spades was won by the queen and a third spade cleared the suit. South then played the ten of diamonds and apparently this was taken by the ace. The small clubs strongly looked like two discards, so West must have had the ace of diamonds, together with five spades headed by the queen.

Feeling kind of guilty, I took the first trick with the ace of spades and laid down the ten of diamonds. I ended up making ten tricks.

'Well done,' my partner said. 'Well done,' my team-mates said later. Thanks to this board we had won by a margin of 12 IMPs.

In the months that followed I was able to apply the card-reading technique on an increasing number of occasions, not only in declarer play but also in defence and even in bidding. It helped me in choosing the right lead against 3NT from KQ9xx and it even kept me out of a 50% slam where I could detect that the king of trumps was offside.

But, Mr van Hoof, it somehow bothers me to win my points (and money) this way. There is no way that I could stop using these dubious techniques; my team-mates would notice immediately. And even if I left the team, I just wouldn't be able to neglect the order of the cards that I pick up.

Therefore, I turn to you for your help. Your column is read by a lot of tournament players. Please write about this phenomenon, of course without mentioning your source, and tell all bridge players all over the world to shuffle their cards before putting them back in the board.

Yours etc

I DON'T know about you but I was flabbergasted after having read this letter. I agree with the writer that this kind of card-reading comes very close to cheating, but there are no rules against applying it. So I'm happy to oblige with the request to publicize it and I submit the following BOLS tip:

Shuffle your cards!