A Lesson for A Players

My brother was playing bridge with another C player, defending against A players in a 3NT contract. Ed didn't have much of anything in his hand, and at some point during the play he responded with a lowly 2 of hearts. I was playing on the other side of the room, so what follows is an approximation of what happened next.

LHO turned to Ed's partner. "What does his 2 of hearts mean?" he asked.

Ed's partner was a bit confused by this question but did her best to answer. "It means he doesn't have many hearts left," she responded.

"But what is he signaling?"

Ed's partner shrugged. "That his lowest heart is a 2."

LHO persisted in his questioning. "But what does that mean?"

Ed's partner, having run out of answers, gave a resigned sigh. "It doesn't mean anything."

LHO was aghast. "You mean he plays cards at random??"

At this point in the conversation my brother could no longer keep silent. "Yes, I do play cards at random."

RHO was stunned by this revelation. "Why haven't you learned signaling?"

"There's so much, I guess it's just been on the back burner."

"Well, move it to the front burner!"

This was all just too much for Ed, who found the discussion so humorous that he had to excuse himself from the table in order to regain his composure.

The moral of the story is: A players shouldn't assume that every move a C player makes has meaning, because a lot of times it doesn't.