IT'S A HARD LIFE AS A BEGINNER.....................( Says Bridgemeister Gibson ) Countless amusing stories emerge from the bizarre world of bridge, but that's not surprising given the fact that millions of people play the game week in week out. So if all these people get through tens of thousands of hands in their lifetime, there are bound to be some comic tragedies played out that make for great story telling. One of my all time favourites involved a club expert instructing his pupil about a particular type of cue-bid: if the opponents open one of a major, then a cue bid over-call in that suit at the 3 level says: " I have a long solid minor, so if you partner have a stopper in this major.....bid 3NT ". When paired together a few weeks later, the pupil initiated that same bidding sequence, when he duly bid 3S over his opponent's 1S opener. The club expert with his spade stop bid a confident 3NT, only to find himself doubled and vulnerable..................going 6 off for minus 1700. He turned to his pupil querying the fact that all he had for his bid was the Ace of spades. " Oh, did I get it wrong. I thought you told me that 3S meant that if I had a stopper, you were to bid 3NT if you had a long solid minor ."