“I first met Peter Steinberg eight years ago in a New York City bridge club. He told me that the night before he had tried to teach a friend how to play bridge and it had been a disaster. It is a story, with variations, I have heard repeated many times since.
The group Steinberg was with needed a fourth. Peter asked his friend to sit in. He protested he had never played before, but Peter assured him it would be all right. He gave his friend a crash course and they sat down to play. What happened is still recalled with glee by the opponents and with embarrassment by Peter and his friend.
On the first hand it was the friend’s turn to bid. “What should I do?” he asked.
“Bid your best suit,” Peter said.
“What do you mean?”
“Just tell me what your best suit is.”
He thought for several minutes. “I guess,” he finally said, “that my best suit is the blue one I wore last Sunday.”
The opposing partnership could not stop laughing, the humiliated friend stormed out, and the bridge game was over.
Peter Steinberg will never relive this scene. He has since become one of the most respected teachers in the country and gives lessons at the prestigious Beverly Bridge Club in Manhattan. Some of the best players in the world come to Peter for advice, but it is with the teaching of beginners that he has no peer…”
Alan Sontag, 6-time World Champion, Bridge Hall of Fame, author of THE BRIDGE BUM
From Introduction to Play Bridge in Four Hours by Peter Steinberg, 1978