Class. Book.. JiJ^JLgZ. (^ Copyright]^^- COPVRIGHT DEPOSKR AUCTION-ALL VALUES BRIDGE AND DUMMY PLAT Laws of Auction and Bridge AMERICAN AND ENGLISH BY JOHN B. GLEASON Sent on Receipt of Price, $1.25 Net A. W. GLEASON 210 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY ?.^v Copyright, 1912, by A. W. GLEASON €C!.A3145S5 7 1^ / AUCTION BIDS New Values at Auction. — This book points out the rules of bidding and of play inseparable from the scheme of the game at any values; but if no other values are named it will be taken that the values are 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, for spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, royals (lilies), notrump. In the old game, the bids go unevenly and 3 notrump ends the bidding. In no system should the notrump count more than 10 and there should always be a low safe bid. What bids should be allowed between these essential bids has been much debated, but as soon as any one plays the new bids he sees their superiority over the old. The doubtful point is the in- creased spade value at 9. This is the most amusing game; it gives better opportunity to bid the suits against each other; the nearness between H and EL brings a struggle between these suits and introduces many new problems. My own prejudice against the El has worn away after playing the new values; in fact it seems that the game requires more skill than before. Diamonds and clubs are made real fighters; there is a contest all along the line. 2 Auction Bids Notrmnp-2, clubs-2, notrump-S, diamonds ! (This 2 notrump at the bridge values required 4 dia- monds or 6 clubs.) Three-notrump, 5 diamonds, double, redouble. Such a bidding shows a sharp difference of opinion and the best judge of the card combinations is the winner. Ordinarily it will be the 4 h or rl which will take away the pre-eminence of the 3 notrump. So in the con- test between h and rl, one suit may be assisting the one and one the other and the game-winning bid or the high penalty-winning bid may turn upon the showing of the outside help or by the proper moment at which the assistance is given. Then there is the amusing game which the Eng- lish call "Fatten Them Up," referring to the obtaining of large penalties from their over- bidding which you double instead of trying for game. In saying that diamonds and clubs are fighters, note that 3 clubs makes him raise his 2 rl to 3 rl and be careful to note that his last bid is not beaten by 4 clubs, but is beaten by 4 diamonds. But 3 hearts is beaten by 4 clubs. Now shall he go 4 hearts or double your 4 clubs? Here the weakness of your suit is some protec- tion in that your bid does not take you out, but he may double you out. His bid of 3 hearts which was probably here prohibitive at the old game, since you could hardly have a 3 notrump call against it, is justly removed from the com- Auction at New Values 3 manding position which it had by the strength of the pack; and skill of bidding is required. A few rounds of bidding will give many other iUnstrations. It appears that it may be affirmed without hesitation, that the foregoing is the most scientific and interesting system that can be devised. Those formerly invincible hands are called to a strict account ; by judicious bid- ding the old prohibitory bid of 3 notrump or 4 hearts is driven up and is doubled. Auction at the Beidge Values. — Spades 2; Clubs 4; Diamonds 6; Hearts 8; notrump 12. Bid notrump on a strong hand and bid hearts if you are willing to play hearts and bid spades on a weak hand. A diamond or club bid indi- cates help for a notrump and is not made on length of suit only. A bid of 2 spades also indi- cates a subsidiary notrump and should not be made without actual strength in spades. This is a useful bid, but is at the disadvantage that it allows the second bidder to show any suit and if your partner has a bad hand and the bid is "2 spades-no-no," the fourth bidder is certain that he can double the make ; but the last position is uncommon and calls on him to choose between the double and the winning of a game. "When the dealer has bid 1 spade or 2 spades, the second bidder having any good hand is in a strong position because he is not compelled to 4 Auction Bids bid as is the dealer; he may make any wiiming bid with the alternative of showing a strong black suit as an invitation to a notrump or to indicate what suit should be led to him if the third bidder bids notrump. If he passes, the third hand will allow the dealer's heart bid to stand if he can help the hearts; he will call any good notrump, particularly on any invita- tion bid of his partner. If the dealer has called notrump or hearts and the second bidder has overcalled him, he will assist on good support in accordance with the rules hereafter given. Some play with Eoyals at 10, making a game inferior to the game at the new values. HoNOES. — ^Whatever the values are, you ob- tain the honor score by multiplying the trick value by 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, for the 6 possible cases of 3 or more honors held by two partners joiatly or all in one hand. By multiplying once or twice from the bottom up and from the top down, these multipliers will be fixed in mind. In notrump 3 aces are 30, 4 are 40, 4 in one hand are 100. Be Familiar with the Laws. — The laws of auction of the Whist Club of New York are the standard, and with the careful revision of Mr. Clarence A. Henriques cover well the incidents for which laws are required. They are based upon the celebrated whist laws of the Portland Club ; celebrated for the report that there never Analysis op the Game 5 was a syllable or conuna of them but that called for construction, having been written by a mas- ter in the art of double entendre. It is assumed that you know the laws and that it is unneces- sary to repeat what they clearly state. Analysis op the Game. — In a game possess- ing unusual features, it is important to know the theory and to see how far one could go to- ward knowing how to play, without ever play- ing. These cards derive their value from their rank and from length of suit and from the posi- tion of high cards with reference to other high cards. The chief game is the highest game, notrump, where all the suits are equally valu- able. A singleton, even if a high card, may make the hand vulnerable as notrump, but strong at trumps; so that there is a conflict between the claim of one part of the hand to be a notrump and the claim of some long suit asking to be made the trump. A good game might be made by giving the same value to all the suits, but ranking differently in the bidding, and requiring 10 tricks for game in trumps as against 9 in notrumps. This difference of one trick is vital. To take 10 tricks requires great strength ; the added trick is the one that cannot be got. The counting hands are the hands which win the game on the deal ; a lower score is unim- portant in comparison. An expensive penalty 6 Auction Bids attends the failure to make the bid. We may conclude a priori, as the metaphysicians say, that there is objection to taking great risks on a hand which does not look at all like game, but does look strong enough to keep them from going game. In such a hand two questions arise : Can I tell my partner by my bid the sort of a hand I have? Can I safely bid them up so that they cannot make their bid? Coming to the bid of a trump, it is plain that if all the suits were of the same count per trick, but ranking higher in the bidding, the fact that one suit has higher bidding values above it puts it at a serious disadvantage. To overcome this it would be well, wherever practicable, to start the lower suit at a higher bid, as of 2 in the suit, in the hope that the higher suits are so divided that no one will venture a bid of 2. This position is still more plainly marked in the actual game where all the suits are valuable but count 6, 7, 8, 9. The lower suit claims a higher bid and says — "Why bid me, if you are not will- ing at the start to equalize my position with the others ? The answer should be that I desire to invite my partner to call notrump, by show- ing him the strength in the inferior suit. At once it appears that the difference of this, 6, 7, 8, 9, is a great difference. An important and most desirable diversity is produced by the fact Analysis of the Game 7 that diamonds and clubs require more tricks for game. The important distinction emerges that if you bid a higher suit, you should be willing to play it, while the lower bids should be of an informatory nature. Therefore the bid of one on five or six: clubs or diamonds to the queen is a false bid and incurs heavy penal- ties by inviting your partner to bid up his no- trump. A very strong hand may give you an option of commencing with a weaker bid than the strength of the hand indicates. With such a hand the question of the kind of the players with whom you are playing enters intimately into the question of your first bid. "With some adversaries all that is needed to start them bid- ding is to bid 1 spade ; they will bid your great suit or when you turn to it will bid up their suit and will either double your final bid to their great loss, or will give you a great penalty by doubling them. When this game was begun, it was played by those among whom, if we may judge by the statements of these excellent and genial players themselves, there was no super- fluity of good players ; to call them a school or rival schools is beside the mark; but there was a tendency to commence with low bids and by the display of the bidding to work towards a higher bid. Now, with every one going fast, a good player will at times go slow. Eules of 8 Auction Bids play have the peculiarity that if they are so good that every one follows them, they are not so good. If you come to a time when everyone knows that your bid always means one thing, you will in dangerous and critical situations make the bid when it does not mean that thing at all; if you see that it will frighten and turn them to a better bid, that is, a bid better for you. It is clear, however, that any good, strong bid is stronger for being made promptly. After your bid, the lower bids are at the disadvantage that to bid 2 requires a strong suit and the strength may be so divided that the bid will not be made, thus shutting out the information which might have given them a game bid. Also with a ragged suit the second bidder fears that he may be pointing out a notrump to your part- ner by showing him that he is over the high cards, giving them the option of a notrump or a double by making a bid which does not seem a game bid. Therefore it often happens that by your strong bid, the second bidder is debarred from showing a suit where if he had shown it his partner would have pointed to a winning notrump. With hands called strong, as opposed to very strong, the question is, How far will the added strength of the trumps compensate for having to make more tricks than a notrump ? The best way here is to classify your hands by Analysis of the Game 9 the length of the longest suit. Such an uncom- mon thing as 8 or 9 in suit absolutely demands the trump. A 7-card suit hand cries aloud to be declared in trumps. With 6 or 7 in EL or H, if they are so strong that even if your part- ner bids notrump they will require you to bid them again, why not bid 2 at the start? This may save you from having to bid 3. At times this is a good bid, but ordinarily applies to an unbalanced hand which is made very strong as a playing hand, if played in the bid. In the 6 or 7 card suit hands, serious questions arise which will have to be considered in detail. The bulk of your notrumps will be in the 5 and 4 card suit hands. Assuming that you do not have a notrump, or a bid of 2, or a bid as good as 1 H, the question is, should you not make the bid of 1 spade, or should you try to show something to your partner? This brings up the question, How much strength do I expect my partner to have on my strong bid, and how much strength may he hope that I have on my 1 spade bid? I bid on the hope or theory that he will have as good as one-third of the strength outside of my hand, and thinking that he may readily have more by reason of the advantage of seeing the dummy and combining the two hands. There- fore, if on my bid the second bidder overcalls me, my partner should hesitate about support- 10 Auction Bids ing me with only moderate help. If the partner passes, it will be hoped that he is not one of those miintentionally informatory players who pass cheerfully if they have nothing; but, if they have something, hesitate so long that the dealer is informed of it. Assuming that he has avoided this most serious fault and that the bid is back to me, I think that he has as good as one sure trick and probably more than that, but not a strong hand. If I am the dealer's partner and he bids 1 spade, I think that he has more than one trick and that he may have an ace. With the advantage of playing the dummy, I count him for two obvious tricks and the probability of establishing some low cards in* a long suit. I think that if his hand is not so strong as this, they will go on with their bid. Therefore he should not take my trump bid up to 3 without some reason more than two tricks, such as a singleton in their suit or a hand which he thinks will help to nine tricks by reason of something outside of the trump bid. The fact is that with all these suits bidding against each other every one knows how to bid 2 ; that is, he thinks he does and will care little for the analy- sis hereafter given. But because he remembers losing 1,200 or 1,500 points at times, he would be willing to attend to any analytical arts that could tell him how to bid 3 or 4 safely, or to How TO Bid at Any Values 11 double their bids and obtain a great penalty. Nor is this difficult to answer. You cannot bid the 4 safely unless you bid the 2 safely. And you cannot bid the 2 safely on a hand which denies the possibility of a great score and is below the average of the hands likely to be out against the bid. Analysis also condemns the practice of inviting a notrump on a hand which is below one-fourth of the strength of the pack, counting the hand as a playing hand and consid- ering the possible combinations in playing the two hands. How TO Bid at Any Values. — Three notrump for game; 4 in some suit for game; 5 in some suit for game ; and a low safe bid, are indispen- sable. The notrump will always have the great superiority and everything that cuts down the values of the intermediate suits increases the dominance of the notrump. It will always be true that it is safer to declare a good notrump at once, in order to shut out informatory bids. The rules hereafter given for the notrump are valid with notrump at 12 and EL left out, or with any values, so long as the notrump remains at the top. The principle of invitation bids for a notrump rests in the inability of these suits to go game. In the new bidding, two club shuts out a one notrump ; in the old bidding two clubs is a stronger invitation to a notrump than a 12 Auction Bids one-club bid. The new bids combine the high and low values so ingeniously that the ability to bid at these values carries with it the ability to bid at any other values. In every system of bidding the maxim will remain true — Do not BID AGAINST THE STRENGTH OP THE PACK. Name the bidders 1, 2, 3, 4. Name the players A with D against L and E; that is, A the de- clarer with his dummy D, against the left and the right-hand adversary of the declarer. When it is said to bid the suit, if the suit is in spades EL is meant. The bid of 1 spade ; 2 spades ; is in the nature of a convention rather than a suit bid. Note that when it is said to do this or that with such strength, it is understood that this is all in the hand that is given as the exam- ple or limit. What you should do with a single- ton, or other peculiar distribution, or a hand which may add other strength, or suggest other weakness, is not included in the rule xmless it is expressly named. Numerical Formulas. — These are a poor sub- stitute for card sense. At bridge formulas were given which required a blackboard, a chart and a recess. It may interest the beginner to count for his notrump A, 7 ; K, 5 ; Q, 3 ; J, 1 ; 2 10s, 1. At bridge he requires 19 for his notrump, divided over 3 suits. The only numerical formula for you to follow The Theoeetical Aveeage Hand 13 is ; How many tricks can I count in my hand on this make? How many losing cards are there? These questions are vital. Thus; I have 6 trumps good for 5 tricks, and a suit of 5 good for 4 tricks. I have 4 losing tricks and can bid up to 3 without any help from my partner. This method must be followed in bidding up the hand, with the caution that an unbalanced hand or a hand with only 5 trumps calls for many other considerations. I have never had the pleasure of playing against any one who based his bids on giving numbers to the cards, but from what I read and hear it, seems certain that it would be a great pleasure. There is no short cut or royal road as a substitute for card sense. The Theoeetical Aveeage Hand. — Such a hand has one-fourth of the strength and length of the pack fairly divided between the suits. It has no singleton and is in the distributions 4432—5332—5422—4333. Ax-kxx-ql0x-i98x is the theoretical limit for a notrump bid and is to an extent a freak hand, in that the average strength is so protected that no adversary can lead off a solid suit. With 4 average hands substantially alike, the advan- tage of seeing the dummy may be decisive. Thus in a common way of card makers in sorting their packs, a deal without shuffling gives each hand — 14 Auction Bids Ak95-qxx-jxx-10xx, and the declarer may make 4 for Ms aces and kings, 2 queens and 2 thir- teenth cards; and with a slight change giving a 5 card suit may go game. Such facts empha- size the desire of the declarer to go notrump. The term "average hand," in this book, will be understood to mean a hand as good as the above hand, which in different distributions may re- quire another honor, but with the average strength divided between at least 3 suits. The average hand for a notrump has 5 possible tricks either by counting the probability of makiQg a small card good or by the added honor. A just and equal theoretical distribution is impossible, because the cards cannot be so ar- ranged but that one side must take one trick more than the other. Classify the hands as very strong; strong; weak; using the idea of average strength and length as a guide. This classification places average hands among the strong hands on the principle that the card that makes the hand strong leaves it weak — ^not average — by taking it away. AcQuiEE Cabd Sense by Knowing the Com- mon Combinations and Make Yottr Own Illus- TEATivE Hands. — Principles of play and illustra- tive hands based upon high and unusual com- Acquire Caed Sense 15 binations must not be allowed to influence the ordinary play. It is a common error to try to support some theory of usual play by giving a phenomenal hand. Also it is idle to name all sorts of hands on which you should do this or that. In bidding you should have a standard of the lowest limit on which you will make this or that bid. Then all the higher hands are so much the better, but need not be named. After you have learned to call notrump on 3 aces, do you need to be told that you may do so with 4? Divide a suit between 4 hands, first giving all the strength to one hand and then changing the honors around. Can you not see at once that with A,Q, J in your hand you need to lead twice from dummy and finesse if the K is on your right? That with A,J,10,x it may be good play to lead to this hand and play the 10 the first time if the K or Q or both are on your right? that with only an honor in each hand as A — Q — ; K — Q — ; or Q — J — it is better that they should lead the suit? Ordinary players do not know these facts, after years of play, and yet they should be known in 15 minutes, by sorting out the combinations yourself and leading them. If you wish to be a good player, as soon as you have lost a game by your bad pla-y, turn that game into an illustrative hand, illustrative to you as a warning against that error. 16 Auction Bids Study carefully the tables of combinations hereafter given, so that you may know what the illustrative hands which you see printed actually indicate for your guidance. All such hands are interesting from some standpoint, but if the printed hand shows an uncommon situation and your remembrance of it influences your play m a common situation, the hand does harm. Some players who would otherwise be very good play- ers lose many games by playing with the re- membrance of something extraordinary. The fact that a position has occurred in actual play gives it no authority over any other position; the question is a question of probabilities. I have seen hands in actual play where the leader would have won by leading the 2 from A,K,Q, J,2. Classify your notrump hands as notrump in the 7 card suit hand; in the 6, 5, 4, suit hands and have a standard in your mind for each suit hand. Commenciug this way your attention is emphatically directed to the fact that with a suit of 7 the hand is unbalanced and if it is not protected in all the suits with a fair chance of taking tricks in the great suit it would be much safer to play this hand as a trump. Classify your trump hands in the same way and notice that as the length of the suit decreases the claim of a strong hand to be called notrump increases. Bid 1 Spade on a Weak Hand 17 As soon as your hand falls below the standard of game winning bids, be very cautious. Bid 1 Spade on a Weak Hand. — This includes a hand that you do not like the looks of ; a hand where the bid may mislead your partner and is not strong enough to bid notrump or to invite a notrump. This hand may have some strength in it. You cannot afford to have it known that there never is an ace in your hand when you bid 1 spade; you may have 2 or 3 good cards. Any hand with 6 or 7 to the queen and little outside is a 1 spade. It is so weak for no trump that if 3 bids notrump, you may have to bid 2 in the long suit; it would be well enough to have this suit made trumps, but the danger is that your bid of one in the long suit may lead your partner to bid notrump. Four overcalls him and your partner, being protected once in that suit, bids up his notrump. I do not know how far he will go if he has the king of your suit and relies upon you for a strong bid. Do Not Lose Moee Than One Eubbeb at Once. — This happens daily from trying to make bad hands take the place of good ones; from starting with a bid from which your partner may reasonably hope that you are stronger than the hand before you is. The fact is that if you and your partner have bad cards, you cannot make them take the place of good ones at auc- 18 Auction Bids tion. But in many cases where a bad player will run Ms losses up to 2 or 3 rubbers in one, you can restrict your loss to the fair value of 1 rubber. Extend your 1 spade bid to all cases where a different bid invites your partner to overbid his fair hand up to 2 or 3, relying upon the assertion by you of high cards which you do not have. The Bid of 2 Spades. — Where EL is not played, 2 spades shows strength in spades and an invitation to a notrump. With EL played, the bid is less frequent. It may be made on a hand having high spades, not enough for EL and cards, which will help a notrump well; but un- protected in one suit and not much or nothing in a third suit : a 6 card spade suit to Q JlOxxx with AK in a second suit is better bid as 2 EL than 2 spades. An imusual distribution, or a single- ton is ordinarily a bad 2 spade bid. It seems that the f ollowiug hand should have been started as 1 spade— S., K,Q,8,2; H., K,10; C, 7 ; D., 10,8. Here the partner, who was a good and hopeful player, bid his notrump up to 3, and would have made the bid if the dealer had had a second club. The singleton may help a suit declaration, but makes such a hand weaker than it should be as a declared subsidiary notrump. The practice of bidding 2 spades on a hand with- out a sure trick in spades is bad. Some play- Bid 2 on Peculiar Hands 19 ers bid 2 spades where others would bid no- trump. Others will bid 3 spades on A,K of spades and A,K in a second suit. The rule is to bid notrump rather than 2 spades, A hand with only 3 possible tricks is below average strength and is 1 spade rather than 2 spades. Very Strong Hands Are a Law to Them- selves. — ^With such hands you have the right to make any bid which looks like winning the game. Thus 6 hearts to Q, J,10,x,x,x with 2 outside aces is a very strong hand if played in hearts. Such a hand may be started as 1 heart or as 2 hearts with a preference for the latter bid. Very strong hands at times permit you to set a trap where you see larks perching about the tables. This is a dangerous thing to do ; for it will not always succeed, even against those always bidders ; and when it does not and you are left to play one spade on a game winning hand, no one will be very sorry for you, and any praise from your partner will be of a perfunctory nature. Bid 2 on Very Strong and Peculiar Hands. — Here the hand is unbalanced and you may wish to shut out a bid which may carry you up to 3 or 4. The foregoing rule is a suggestion for your variety in bidding. Do not bid 2 if you can bid one just as well. The bid should be made on a hand which you are willing to play at the bid. If you are along on the score, a bid 20 Auction Bide of 2 may be made in clubs or diamonds ; for the partner will see the possibility of game and that the hand is governed by the long suit and will wish to assist. The practice of the best play- ers is not uniform here and this shows that care must be taken in making the bid. Thus some good players with a long solid suit of spades or hearts will at times bid 2, but do not favor the bid of 2 on a long suit of 6 or 7 to the queen and an outside ace. They will bid 1 spade on such a hand, expecting to bid 2 in the suit when the bid comes to them again. They say that a hand that does not look like a game winning hand does not call for an expensive bid. It is well to fix a limit, at which limit you will consider the question of bidding 2. First you note that the hand does not help a notrump well ; second, that it has 7 possible tricks if the trump is declared ; third, that if you bid one in the suit it may mis- lead your partner. In such cases, a bid of 2, particularly if you are 12 on the score may be a better bid than 1 spade. Here your bid warns your partner that you have a strong reason for thinking that the hand should be played in trumps. If you are a conservative bidder he will think that you have a very long suit, which at notrump may take 2 leads to establish, and that you have an outside ace. Bid Spades 21 Bid Spades. Bid Notrump. Bid Tops. Bid 2. — By the first rule we revert to the principles, if any, of the founders of our game ; and declare the intention of bidding spades unless convinced to the contrary by something in the hand. But if you always bid spades you will never win. No, but I will lose only one rubber at a time. Those high cards are all somewheres. I have not my share of them. The number of winning combinations is very great. I do not see one of them. The fact is that I am beaten so far as this hand is concerned. I will take this loss and bid 1 spade. Then if my partner has a hand on which he can bid 2 or 3, those cards — on which you think that I might have taken a one to three chance — ^will be there and will help him. Any hand which is actually below the strength of one-fourth of the pack is a spade bid. By the rule — Bid notrump — we recognize a hand with more strength, or fully as much strength as the strength of one-fourth of the pack. Because of the advantage of playing two hands together, I am willing to bid this hand a notrump. Now I have a different hand, not a notrump, but with a long suit with top cards in it. I will bid this suit. On this rule, I will not bid one in any suit without as good as the king and other high cards in it and such length in the suit that I am willing to play it for trumps. 22 Auction Bids My bid of one says tliat I have the ace or king with such length and strength that I am willing to play this bid in EL or hearts ; if the bid is in clubs or diamonds I have as good as that and am willing to play it at the score, for my suit is so strong that my partner should know it with reference to going notrump, or leading that suit on their notrump. Here an exception is sug- gested in EL or hearts. If a game winning com- oination is shown in these suits, the suit may be bid on a long suit to the queen and outside strength. It is not meant that the hand itself must show game, but that it shows a fair chance for game with natural help from the dummy. Wherever the hand is such that if the partner went notrump you would feel obliged to change the bid to EL or hearts, that suit may be bid in the first instance. Why not wait! Well, they may show a lower suit and bid me up. They bid a club; my partner passes; they bid a no- trump. Now bid your 2 hearts. The inferior position is that if I had bid my heart at the start, the second bidder might not have been able to show his club suit. This reason is ade- quate to the extent of justifying the heart bid on a really good hand; where if the partner went notrump there would be help for him, and good help even if it took 2 rounds to establish the heart suit. Here the last part of the rule Bid Spades: Notrump: Tops: Two 23 says : Bid 2 if you cannot bid tops but think that you should bid your hand. You ought not to be willing to bid one in a suit which may mislead your partner, unless your hand is so strong that you are willing to bid 2 even if the second bid- der bids against you and your partner passes. If this position is granted, then why not make at the start the bid that you are willing to make after the disadvantage of their bid? The an- swer is that the varieties of hands are greater than any rule. On some hands by reason of a singleton, etc., there is a good bid of one but not of 2. Two partners who play the above rule, rejecting the above exceptions, against two part- ners who do not will have a decided advantage. Thus — 1 spade — 1 diamond — ^no — 1 notrump (2) ; 2 hearts — no — ^no — 2 notrump (3) ; no — no — 3 hearts — 3 notrump (4) ; no — ^no — double — no. The second bid of the dealer is shown to his partner to be on a long suit to the queen and an outside ace, if the dealer is a good bidder. The partner's support and double is on the king and another heart and a likely trick in two suits. He argues that his partner will be able to estab' lish his great suit by leading it at once before his entry card is taken away. A great penalty is now secured from a hand which would have not taken more than 2 by cards at hearts. If the dealer had shown strength on his first bid. 24 Auction Bids they would not have bid up their notrump, but when the dealer bid one spade and his partner passed, the possibility of 3 notrumps was much greater. Therefore the principle of always bid- ding simply because you have something in the hand has its drawbacks. There is always a sound discretion in the making of bids. Try the above text as your rule and require some good reason for departing from it. Absolutely to be condemned is the practice of some old whist players of showing a long weak suit, because they know that with that suit for trumps they would take some tricks and without it they will take no tricks. They forget that they are not going to be allowed to play that suit ; that what is going to happen is that the enemy will bid a suit and their partner will bid 2 or 3 notrumps on the strength of their bid and that they will be doubled and will lose the value of a rubber on the hand. Do Not Bid a Shokt Suit to Show Tops In It. — Never do this in EL or hearts. The rule condemns the common practice of bidding any short suit to show the ace. If the short suit has high cards in it, the hand is a notrump or a spade. Take a hand with 3 diamonds to the ace and an outside king — and nothing else — for you will remember that all the hands herein given are limits and name all the good points in Do Not Bid a Shoet Suit 25 the hand — it is a weak hand. Two high cards with the king, and the hand is still weak. Add an- other high card and bid the notrmnp yourself; you can now count the hand up to 5 tricks. If the hand is objected to as a notrump, as void in 2 suits, or in fact weak now that you come to look at it on the theory of playing it yourself instead of sitting back and seeing your partner try for his 3 notrump bid made after your invitation — bid 1 spade and be glad that you have some good cards to do it on. If you go on bidding with hands which are in fact weak, of course you will win, and of course you will lose; the bal- ance will be largely against you, because of the penalty. What some players do is that they constantly bid an odd or two against a large penalty. At the same time, the practice of a player who says — You may be certain that I have tops, or as good as an ace, if such a thing can be, in any suit 1 bid, is a strong position. There is no comparison between the skill of this bidder and the folly of those weak suit bidders. The use of a book like this is not to instruct good players, but to make bad play known as bad play to beginners. For them I will state the fact that only yesterday my partner, an old whist player, bid one club. I carried my no- trump up to 2 and was doubled with a great penalty, because all that he gave me was 6 clubs 26 Auction Bids to the Q,9, and the king of spades, and the re- mark as he put down his hand, "Of course I had to show you the best I had." It is not denied that at times bad bids work well. Just as the most difficult plays at golf are the things that beginners do all the while ; so at auction a bad bidder will at times interpose a bid whose bad- ness is so inconceivable that the adversaries mis- read his hand and fail of their game. Do Not Eisk Being Doubled Wheee They Cannot Go Out on Their Bid. — This means not to give them 2 or 3 games all in one by letting them bid you up and double you, where you have a hand from which it is reasonably cer- tain that they cannot win the game. They will not double your bid of one; with a good hand you will go to 2; but when it comes to 3, stop, listen and look at your hand while you ask your- self — what will happen if I let them hold their bid? Do not bid 4 in trumps with 2 losing cards in their suit. This caution often applies to a bid of 3. To take away the rule, the bidding of your partner must be considered carefully and the number of losing cards. Do Not Change Their Bid If It Suits Your Hand. — This is an important rule. Thus the dealer bids hearts ; you as second bidder have a good suit of hearts and 4 spades to A,Q. It is Be a Partner 27 best to look on those spades as a deterrent to their notrump. That is, if you should bid 1 EL in the hope of bidding them up and doubling them, then the third player with the king of spades may have a good notrump shown him by your bid. The same rule applies to doubling where the effect of the double may be to drive them to their best bid. Be a Partner. — Any partnership is a disaster if there is no confidence. If your partner knows that you are a safe bidder, he assists you prop- erly and doubles them knowingly; while if he thinks that he is in more danger from you than he is from them, he cannot play. The first es- sential thing is that you shall not think that you know it all. If your hand requires assistance, and your partner has not assisted you, be warned. Take an inventory of the players; know their modes of play and as each in turn becomes your partner conform to his ideas as far as possible. Guard against their bad mode of bidding and play, but never criticise it. With a partner who is a rash bidder and a poor player it is folly to make bids on which there is only a fair chance with a good player. Win here by actual strength or lose by such safe bids that the rubber is small. Give the poor player every proper assistance in supporting his bids, after you have warned him that yours is not 28 Auction Bids a strong hand, by yonr failure to make a strong bid, or by not assisting him till he has bid twice. Do not call his attention to any error in his play ; particularly a plain downright error from want of attention. If he does not see it and you stir him up, you will forget his first error when you see what he hands you next. Dealek^s Notrump Bid. — Eule ; a queen above the average ; or 2 aces and a protected suit and no better bid shown; or 5 likely tricks and no better bid shown. The limit for a notrump bid is A,X— K,X,X— Q,10,X— J,9,8,X. Note what is said of this hand under the heading Average Hands. The beginner is advised to require a queen better than this. But this distribution favors the absence of freak hands. It is better for such a hand to be led to than to be shown on the table. Your bid may shut out an informa- tory bid or prevent them from calling a no- trump where the hands are so divided that either side can win the notrump, by the advan- tage of seeing the winning combinations. These reasons influence many to make such bids that their notrump bid is acclaimed as a confession of great weakness. The bridge rule — ^beware of a one-ace notrump refers to the fact that at bridge the declaration is final. At auction the bidding often starts with notrump, without an ace. Notrump is the safest bid on a doubtful Dealer's Notrump Bid 29 hand. They will not double one notrump; at times they bid the suit which you thought of bidding, and having to bid 2, you can double them. A hand with a trick in every suit is safer than more high cards and a missing suit. With a missing suit there is the chance that by a false bid they may bid up your notrump with a sure double from holding a solid suit. As soon as you see 2 aces you look carefully for all good reasons for a notrump. Three aces are a no- trump. Seven and six card suit hands. The great suit demands a suit bid. A solid suit of clubs or diamonds with an outside ace or king-queen is a notrump, but with 2 missing suits the alter- native bid of the suit is preferred by any good players. I prefer the notrump. On such a hand if the dummy takes a trick you may go game. A single ace is dangerous, particularly so if it may take 2 rounds to clear your long suit. One spade is often a good bid on these unbalanced hands with the intention of bidding 2 in the suit later, or of going notrump if your partner's bid favors. Hands with only 3 suits call for a trump bid. With a singleton club or diamond, your RL or heart bid may be indi- cated; but a singleton heart or spade is often an argument for the notrump. With strength in clubs and diamonds, the lack of strength in 30 Auction Bids the other suits is not feared anything like so much as at bridge. They will bid their good EL or heart rather than double your notrump. But if the strength is in the high suits, there is danger of your partner being deceived by a false bid by the second bidder, as of 2 diamonds, hold- ing 6 solid clubs. Five card suit hands. Two-fifths of all your hands will be in a 5 card suit hand. The dis- tributions in 1,000 hands are: 5,3,3,2 — 155; 5,4,3,1—130; 5,4,2,2—106; 5,5,2,1—32; 5,4,4,0— 12; 5,5,3,0 — 9. Hands with a missing suit are their own danger signal. A doubtful choice be- tween notrump and a trump in the common com- binations is made a trump or a spade bid in the uncommon combinations. Four card suits hands. More than one-third of all your hands will be in a 4 card suit hand ; 4,4,3,2 ; 4,3,3,3 ; occur 321 times in 1,000 hands ; 4,4,4,1 only 30 times. In this last there are 3 chance of helping your partner's trump bid and a singleton which may be a great factor. The hand being unbalanced for notrump, more strength is required than in the common dis- tributions. A,x,x — K,x,x — Q,10,x — Q,x,x ; A,x,x,x — K,x,x — K,x,x — ^K,x,x ; K,Q,x,x — K,x,x — K,x,x — K,x,x. These are notrumps and any king may be Dealer's Noteump Bid 31 replaced with Q,J. With one suit unguarded there should be a fair chance for 5 tricks and the following are limits: A,K,x — K,10,x,x — K,x,x — x,x,x ; A,x,x — K,Q,x — Q, J,10,x — x,x,x ; A,x,x — K,J,10,x — K,x,x — x,x,x. EoYALs AND Hearts. — Dcclarc royal or heart if you have a sure game in suit and the notrump is doubtful. Also, you have the right to bid EL or hearts on any hand which looks like game by the bid, counting of course on fair help. Your partner will take your bid of these suits as willingness to play the bid. Bid 2 at once with 8. Seven and six card suit hands. With 7 to ace or king, bid the suit. With 7 to Q, J,10 and out- side ace, bid 2. With 7 to Q or J bid 1 spade and if your partner goes notrump, bid 2. With 6 to K,10 and outside ace it seems that the bid of the suit is better than the bid of 1 spade, but with six to the queen and an outside king, bid 1 spade and consider bidding the suit on the second round. The hand H. Q,J,10,xxx — S. A, X — xxx-xx is on the line. It is important for the beginner fully to recognize the fact that he should not bid at the start on weaker hands than these, for many good players bid 1 spade on all the foregoing hands, preferring to bid 2 in the suit on their next bid and thus clearly 32 Auction Bids to show their partner that the suit is long but misses some high cards, so that he shall not carry the bid to 3 or 4 on anything less than a good strong hand. The danger is that with the suit as good as above the bid may be up to 2 notrump when the bid comes back to you. With a singleton as H. Q,J,10,xxx — S. A,xxx — D. xx — C. X., bid the suit at once. Add another ace, and the foregoing is a good bid of 2. With an out- side ace and king, RL or heart may be bid on any 6 card suit with 2 honors in it. Very unfre- quently you will have a hand with both a 6 and a 5 card suit and there may be a good bid in the 5 card suit. Once m. 1,000 times you will have 6,6,1,0. A complimentary bid of 2 may be con- sidered. 5 card suit hands. H. A,K,x,x,x — K,x,x — x,x,x — x,x. Bid 1 heart. So with H. A,Q,x,x,x — K,Q,x,x — x,x,x — x; and H. K,Q,J,x,x — S. A, X — D. A,x,x — x,x,x. The bridge rule calls for a heart on H. K,J,x,x,x — S. A,J,x — D. x,x — C. K,x. The bid of 2 spades was made on this hand and it happened that the second bidder bid a heart and the third bidder bid 2 diamonds, upon which the dealer bid 2 notrump, winning the game. This instance proves nothing unless as an illustration that if you see that you can wait, it will sometimes be to your advantage to have waited. Diamonds and Clubs 33 Four card suit hand. H. A,K,x,x — A,Q,x,x — x,x,x — x,x; H. A,K,10,x — K,Q,x — x,x,x,x — x,x. Make these the limit of your EL or heart bid on a 4 card suit hand. Diamonds and Clubs. — With EL added, D. at 7 is a much weaker suit than before, as a trump suit. But you may be something on the game and be willing to play for game in diamonds. The trouble is in the 3 higher bids above you. Your bid of 1 diamond suggests logically an invitation to a notrump. At times you can bid 2 D., applying the preceding rules. If you bid 1, 1 take your bid as an invitation to a notrump. Consider then what will happen if you bid one on 6 or 7 to the Q or worse, as the ludicrous bid of 1 D on 5 to the 9 which I saw lately. The bid on 3 only A,K,Q and nothing else in the hand whatever is not advised. With an outside K or as good as that, bid 1 D. D. A,K, x — C. K,Q,10,x,x,x,x — ^x,x,x. Bid notrump. With A,K,x and outside K, the bid of 1 D. is favored by many good players. These would do the same with A,K,x,x and nothing else. Analy- sis is against the bid and requires as good as a guarded king, as is also the case with A,Q,x,x. In such a matter the feelings of the players with whom you are playing is very controlling. If they think that you should show them a suit of diamonds or clubs where you hold ace, king 34 Auction Bids and nothing outside ; if they know that 1 D. or 1 C. bid by you shows tops, this is immeasurably better than those bids on a long weak suit. Therefore some bid 1 D. or 1 C. when they have the ace. With them 1 D. or 1 C. means the ace. But I do not wish to invite a notrump with noth- ing in my hand but one ace. No doubt it is most excellent to be able safely to show an ace. It is also most excellent at times to be able to play an ace and a high card from a hand which you have started as 1 spade. Eemember that no law compels you to bid notrump or invite no- trump on a hand whose trick making value is below the average. The maxim, "If you like that kind of hands, that is the kind of hands you you will get," fully applies here; because now and then, straining your bids and making bids against the strength of the pack, something will happen which will be remembered long after your bids which got something on the game are forgotten. If you are some players, so to speak, what you say here is — if you only had shown me the ace I could have gone notrump and would have done well, and you say this even though you do not really know what would have happened. Pretty soon you are playing with a partner who does show you an ace on a weak hand and you bid your notrump up to 3 and are doubled and down 500. Now you say — of Diamonds and Clubs 35 course I expected that your bid showed good help for a notrump. A,Q,J,x,x, or K,Q,10,x,x is a real suit which should be shown. So K,Q,x,x,x and outside A. With outside ace and guarded king and 5 D. or C. to Q,J,10,x,x, bid 1 notrump. With 6 to A,Q show the suit; with 6 to K,J,10, x,x,x and nothing else, how can you invite a notrump ? Certainly you would like to play the suit but not to pay penalties for a hand which may not have a trick in it. With 7 clubs to A,K,10, a bid of 2 clubs would be made at the old values. Now the bid takes 2 notrump. With this, bid 2 in diamonds or clubs if you are along on the score. At love all a bid of 1 is better as giving you more good positions to show this hand later. Thus one club — ^no — 1 notrump — ^no — 2 clubs. This shows that you are all clubs. Attention has been directed to the fighting qualities of these suits in bidding up the enemy, making them choose between doubling you or making an unsafe bid. Particularly notice that the bid of 3 diamonds requires a bid of 3 in each higher bid and that if you have good diamonds the bid is a very safe one, assuming that your partner with only a fair hand will recognize it as a legitimate bidding up and will not think that he should bid 4 diamonds against their 36 Auction Bids strong bids. The 2 and particularly the 3 club bid will be found at times most serviceable in forcing up their bids. If your partner has bid anything and you have a solid suit of clubs, you may bid 4 clubs against their 3 in hearts or dia- monds, but be careful to note that 4 clubs does not beat 3 EL, although 4 diamonds does. The Bid of the Second Biddee. — Eule. Bid very strong hands and good invitation hands. Pass hands merely fair. A common and costly error is to bid 2 on a long weak suit of 6, against a notrump. If the dealer is a rash bidder his spade bid shows great weakness. With the strength of the pack between three players, you need a good hand. But the dealer may be a good player playing a sly fox against such as you. One spade — 1 H. — no — 1 EL ; 1 notrump — 2 H. — ^no — 2 EL; 2 notrump — no — no — double; — ^no — ^no — 3 diamonds? — double. The folly of the partner ruins the coup. The dealer had 8 sure tricks at notrump but did not redouble be- cause he was satisfied with the position. Eemember that you are not compelled to bid. If you have a good notrump, bid it. Do not bid a long ragged suit "to show it." The enemy has the first use of this information. One spade — no. This refusal does not deny some strength. One spade — double. One spade — 2 spades. Each of these bids invites a notrump and shows The Bid of the Second Bidder 37 strength in spades, not enough for EL. The first bid leaves the bid with the leader and re- quires his partner to make some bid. The dou- ble says that he can take care of the spade suit ; the 2 spades says that he has a subsidiary no- trump. The advantage of the above bids with a weak notrump is to regulate the ardor of your partner in going up to 3 or 4 notrump. One spade — 1 diamond. A bid of diamonds or clubs suggests a notrump, or if the third bid- der bids notrump, the bid afiQrms that the suit is so strong that your partner felt bound to show it to direct the lead at notrump. Two spades — ^notrump. You must see a strong no- trump here, with spades protected. One no- trump — 2 notrump. You will not permit the dealer to take away your good notrump when you have a very strong hand with all the suits protected. One heart — one EL. This declara- tion inaugurates the war of these two strong suits and leads to many interesting positions. Inasmuch as he has made a strong bid you must see a good strong hand in your bid. So when he has bid EL. for here you have to bid 2 hearts. If he makes either bid, your bid of 2 in clubs or diamonds is a strong invitation to a notrump, provided that your partner is pro- tected against their bid. If the dealer is a poor bidder and has made what will be taken by his 38 AucTioisr Bids partner as an invitation bid and you have high cards in his bid, it may be well to give the third bidder a chance to make his error; to be in a position to support your partner's bid and then double their final bid of 3 or 4. With any game winning hand, make your bid. The rules for the declaration of the dealer apply on his spade bid, with the modification that inasmuch as you are not compelled to bid, and the third hand is very likely to bid, you may have a fine opportunity by keeping quiet and with a singleton or other weakness, you may prefer to hear his bid and to see what your partner will do. This quies- cence may be carried too far. Thus in a hand recently commented on at length in a news- paper, it is taken as a matter of course that the second bidder should pass the bid of 1 spade, holding H. K,x,x,x — C. x — D. A,K,x,x — S. A,Q, J,x. The hand is a notrump with 3 better bids than a pass in it. The hand illustrates that so- called illustrative hands often illustrate that particular deal and nothing else ; for it is given as an instance of the folly of the third bidder in bidding diamonds on D. Q,J,10,9,5— S. K,9— H. J,10,9 — C, A,K, J. The argument was made that he should have allowed the spade to stand, be- cause in this particular deal the dealer had no card above a 10 and the second bidder had passed a notrump. Give the dealer the king of The Bid of the Third Bidder 39 diamonds and let the fourth bidder call notrump and the hand would be given as an example of the benefit of showing your suit. The hand is a notrump, with the excuse for the diamond bid that it is the suit that you wish to have led at notrump. Against the notrump, an excellent bid of the second bidder with a solid suit of 6 clubs or diamonds is to bid 2 in some other suit and double their 2 notrump. You must make this bid once in a while so that they may be in fear of it. When the game was new this device went fairly well, but now good players will let you have any bid of 2 if it suits their hand and will not double you, knowing that you have a way out. If the trap has been spread in vain in the sight of any birds, still they remain timid. The Bid of the Third Bidder. — Where the dealer has bid spades and the second bidder has passed, you require a good strong hand in order to bid. Bid for game on any very strong hand. Bid any good notrump or really good suit of royals or hearts in a strong hand. Or you may have so strong a suit in clubs or diamonds that you wish your partner to lead it to you in case the fourth bidder bids notrump ; or at the score you may have a game hand in clubs or diamonds. With the enhanced values of these suits, a bid at the score may be indicated and there is no 40 Auction Bids danger of misleading your partner such as there would have been on the dealer's bid. The hand previously given : d,q,j, 10,9,5 ; s,k,9 ; h,i,10,9 ; c,a, k,j, is a good diamond bid at 16; at love-all a notrump is better ; in fact, notrump is the best bid at any score. Such a hand asks a bid, be- cause it is strong enough to force them up to 3 if you begin with the diamond and your part- ner has the king. Diamonds and clubs have the advantage in bidding 3, that it is very seldom that they are doubled; even with the ace king, one hesitates to double, because the double may double them out; and because a large penalty means the loss of a game hand ; and a small pen- alty is no better than the score on the winning hand. Where the dealer has bid clubs or dia- monds and the second bidder has passed, you are interested to know what sort of a partner has bid. The whole scheme of your bidding may turn on your ability to rely on his having shown you a high card. For this reason we have in- sisted that he should not bid one on a long suit to the queen. Accepting his bid of 2 spades, one club, or one diamond, as showing a subsidi- ary notrump, bid no trump on any fair no- trump unless a strong suit bid is shown and which looks even better for game. Notrump — 2 hearts. With a long solid suit of clubs or diamonds and no trick in their bid, you must The Bid of the Foxjeth Bidder 41 bid 3 in your suit. One heart — no — one EL) ; or one RL — no — 2 hearts. The change from the one to the other of these good suits shows that you are strong here, but that your hand is weak in his suit. So if you call 2 hearts or royals over his notrump, he should not disturb this bid. Notrump — ^no — 2 notrump. This bid shows a very strong hand and seeks to prevent the fourth bidder from showing a suit. The Bid op the Fourth Bidder. — Here as al- ways, the very strong hands play themselves out, with the additional advantage of having heard three declarations. 1 spade — no — ^no — no. With a weak notrump, let the spade stand. You are not likely to go game and a trap may have been set. If you know that there is no trap, if your partner is conservative and the enemies bid on anything, you are safe in bidding notrump without looking. A very strong hand is required to overcall their notrump bid with 2 notrump, especially so, if the dealer started with a club or diamond. Unless the suit first bid is protected for 2 tricks, it is likely that, with a very strong hand, you have a better 2 suit bid, and that your play is to bid 2 in the suit and double their 3 notrump. Does my partner invite a notrump? Objec- tion has been made to the term — Invitation, but I take the above question to mean — Has my part- 42 Auction Bids ner given me such information of strength that this information with my hand invites a no- trump? In deciding this, distinguish between a forced bid and a free bid. If the dealer has bid 1 H and my partner bids 2 diamonds, the score may be such that he is willing to play 2 diamonds. My support for his bid may be so strong that I am willing to see the diamonds at 4 diamonds. Ordinarily these lower suit bids indicate a subsidiary notrump; often they are made on what would be a fine notrump except for the fact that it is not protected in the ene- mies' declared suit. With a weak notrump, which is protected in their suit, you should call a notrump or 2 notrump if your partner's bid indicates that he can help a notrump; for he should not make a bid open to this construction except on a hand which will support your no- trump well, provided that you can stop their suit. But he may have been trying to bid them up. Good players use every reasonable oppor- tunity of forcing up the adversaries. Often it happens that the position obtained by bidding them up will win penalties and that was what you were after ; but your partner rushes in with a higher bid and the enemy get the penalties. These things must happen ; if they did not, if a sure rule could be laid down, there would be no game. If you can win 2 out of 3 positions, The Bid op the Fourth Bidder 43 the difference is the value of a rubber. To do this your first rule should be — Sometimes I am ivilling to keep still. I am not willing to give up a game winning hand, but why should I take great risks with a doubtful hand? Often also the 4th bidder incurs a great penalty by an in- judicious attempt to bid up the dealer's no- trump. Some players if they have 5 to the q or j will bid to force up the bid. At times they bid directly into the dealer's great suit and are doubled at once. Of if they escape this and the dealer bids 2 notrump, their partner goes to 3 in the suit and now there is a double and great loss. If you find that you are playing in bad luck and that you incur some bad penalties pretty often, consider trying a change. Try the plan of not bidding except on hands which you see to be really good or to have great possibil- ities in them. All the winning cards are some- wheres and the winning combinations are innu- merable. Therefore if you cannot see any game winning combination, after assuming, as you should assume, that your partner will give you some help, at least 1 trick and probably 2, or a hand with several picture cards in it, — count that hand as in fact a weak hand. It is a hand much below the strength of one-fourth of the pack, now that they are bidding. You will lose heavily in the long run if you invite your part- 44 Auction Bids ner to assist you on such hands. Suppose that they let you have your bid for 3 times and that at each time you win it, but do not go game. Then they would not have gone game either. The next time you lose a heavy penalty and are behind on the score. A good player cares lit- tle for a score in a hand where he cannot go game and where he sees such cards that they cannot go game. Be awake to the chances which are given by an unusual distribution of the cards. In a sense these unusual distributions may be called usual distributions; that is, the persistent bidding of one suit against another suit ordinarily occurs in unbalanced hands and in such bidding, now that the unusual hands have come along, it is usual that they bring singletons and short suits with them, and they may bring a hand with only 3 suits in it. If you have none in their suit, or a singleton in it, the reason for assisting your partner's bid is greatly increased. Continuing the Bidding. — The first consid- eration is, CAN THEY WIN THE GAME ON THEIR BID! If it is pretty certain that they cannot, some good reason must appear for giv- ing them a chance to change their bid, or for trying to run up their bid. Your controlling reason is a very strong hand, or one which may become so if played in your bid. The Warning to the Partner 45 Does Their Bid Suit My Hand? — Then do not change it without a very good reason. If your partner bids and they bid again, you will be able to double. The Warning to the Partner. — 1 notrump — no — 2 H. Any bid which cuts down the value of your partner's bid is a strong warning that his bid does not suit your hand. You tell him that the hand must be played in your suit. This may be because the bid makes your hand a game hand; but the ordinary case is where your hand is worthless on his bid and you bid 2 in the longest suit in it. You do this because you expect a bid from the last bidder, which will cause your partner to raise his bid and be doubled with great loss. He is required by your bid to stop his bidding unless he has such a hand that he is willing to play it without a trick from you. He must assume on this bid that you can take no trick. Therefore you should not interpose such a bid on a good sup- porting hand which you think will be better in your suit. Recently, I saw the following bidding: 1 spade — ^no — ^no — ^notrump ; no — 2 diamonds — ^no — 2 hearts; no — 3 diamonds — ^no — ^no. The 3 diamond hand was D,8,x,x,x,x,x, S,8,x,x,x, C,q, x,x, H, none. The partner's hand was D, AK — S, AKQx — 46 Auction Bids H, J1098X— C, Ax. The 2 heart bid was folly. A small slam was obtained in diamonds. Some poor players appreciate such a rule only to the extent of applying it where it does not apply. Thus — ^notrump — 2 diamonds — 2 hearts — on a worthless suit of 6 hearts. Any bid over the second bidder must show actual strength in the bid and is taken as an invitation to go on with the notrump, if the first bidder has protec- tion in the suit bid against him; or to support the last bid if it suits his hand. Numerical Formulas for Assisting. — The only valid numerical formula is the arithmetic which counts the winning and the losing tricks ; having reference to the distribution of the cards; the possibilities of a long suit; the ad- vantages of a singleton and the support given to the hand by the queens, jacks and lO's in it. If your hand counts up to only 2 likely tricks, it is a weak hand at auction and to support the bid invites the partner to go on to 3 or 4 and sure disaster. The lowest limit on which you may assist the bid is an outside ace and king and an honor in his suit. If the hand counts only 2 tricks without an honor above the 10 in his suit, pass the bid. At any time when you see that your hand is on the line or fairly be- low the expectation which any good partner has in making his bid, pass. But as soon as your Assisting Bid of 2 47 hand gets into the rank of a strong supporting hand with plenty of cards in his suit and an outside ace and king and a singleton in their suit, you can keep on supporting and do not need any numerical formula. The Assisting Bid of 2 By the Dealer's Partner. — Notrump — 2 hearts — 2 notrump. This immediate bid indicates a sure trick in their suit and more than 2 tricks in the hand. If you have a solid suit and nothing in their bid, bid 3 in your suit. At the old values you were forced to go on with the notrump, but now the suit may be shown. With no trick in their bid, you must not support the notrump, at this stage, unless you see so many good cards that it is folly for your partner to go on with these cards against him. Poor bidders make a great error here. They have a long suit of 6 or 7 and so bad a hand that if the second bidder had not bid they would have known that they should bid the suit. They bid 2 or 3 in the worthless suit, encouraging the partner to bid up his notrump. You must ex- pect on your immediate assistance that your partner will carry his notrump to 3 certainly; to 4 probably; and to 5 possibly, if he has a good strong hand. Never encourage him to do this with a hand which only doubtfully supports the bid. 48 Auction Bids One heart — one RL — 2 hearts. You must have strong outside support here to assist with- out a good honor in hearts. A hand which may take several tricks. "With good cards in their suit and weak in his, pass. Unusual distribu- tions will give reasons for assisting or not as- sisting. A singleton in their suit is a strong argument. But the rule is that he will bid 2 in his suit even if you pass, unless there is very considerable strength in your hand. Here you will prefer 2 notrump if you have a trick in their suit. In some way you must show him a good strong hand. With a fair hand, the difficulty is that he will take your immediate support to indicate a good honor in his suit and something outside and it may be that, if you have a good honor, his hand shows almost a slam. To avoid the great loss impending from his overbidding, it is safer on a fair hand, with- out a good honor in his suit, to assume that he will bid 2 even if you pass. But supposing that the fourth bidder is the one who has bid and that the dealer has passed. You need actual strength in his suit to assist and some good outside cards if it is a trump bid. In notrump you must have a sure trick in their suit and one sure trick besides; and something more than this. Where are all the queens and jacks and 10s? Is there no suit in The Dealer's Second Bid 49 which you can fairly figure some probable tricks 1 If not, the hand is weak and the bidding must stop. The Dealer's Second Bid. — Notrump. When you have bid on a hand little better than aver- age, bid no more. Notrump — no — ^no — 2. With protection against the bid, go on with a good notrump where you see 6 tricks. Notrump — 2 diamonds — no — no. Let them have the bid, un- less you have a good notrump, for your part- ner's failure to make any bid here argues a bad hand. If the second hand bids, and your partner bids another suit, he is actually strong in that suit. If your hand helps his bid well, let it stand; with little in his suit and a sure trick in their suit, continue the notrump. Trumps — 1 EL — 2 hearts — no — no, 2rl. Any hand good enough to bid 1 rl or heart on is good enough for 2, according to the rule of most players. A good player starts with one spade in those ragged hands where the effect of the bid is to tell the second player that he holds over the hand ; so that if he has a notrump, he bids and plays with certainty, or if long in your suit bids something else and then doubles. You may have bid with 4 trmnps and here if your partner does not support you, it will take a very strong hand to continue. Did I bid the full strength at the start? Always ask this 50 Auction Bids where the fourth bidder bids. I do not bid rl, or h, to show an ace, but I tell my partner that I am willing to play the bid. If I pass he still knows this. Therefore my immediate bid of 2 tells him that I am stronger than my first bid. Then why did not I bid 2 at the start? It seems that I might well have done it; for now they have shown a suit which is going to take us up to 3 or 4. No ; my hand is 5 good trumps and such outside strength that it would help a notrump well; I bid 2 now because I am short in their suit and my hand is a good playing hand. The line seems to be at 5 trumps to the ace, king, 10 and an outside ace. This hand indicates that no wooden rule can be laid down. If I bid 2 on this, they will not double and are almost certain to go 3. But do I wish my part- ner to go 3 or 4? It seems well to continue the bid with such strength in trumps that there is no danger of a double. If you have 6 trumps and a singleton in their suit, you must go on. The Assisting Bid of 3 By the Dealer's Partner. — This bid should show at least 2 likely tricks and there should be some further reason, such as a singleton in their suit, or possibilities in a suit. In the contest between EL and hearts, the third bidder requires a hand short in their bid and actually strong by the partner's bid. The bid should show 3 tricks outside the trumps, Bids of 4 and 5 51 if you have had an opportunity to assist at 2 and have not done so. In this case, the bid denies any solid suit, because you could have shown this suit on the first round. On the rubber game, with nothing. in their suit, there is excuse for supporting the dealer, both at 2 and at 3, on any hand that looks as if it might help him fairly well. Here much depends on the kind of a partner that you have. Never fly any flag. Always have a good reason for your support. It is assumed that you always support him where you see such strong cards that failure to support him ought to make him stop bid- ding. Bids of 4 and 5. — There is always an uncom- mon distribution of cards when you get up to a bid of 4 or 5. If your hand does not show a singleton in their suit the chances of the bidding are against you. And they are greatly against you if your partner is a rash bidder who will support your bid with 2 or 3 small trumps sim- ply because he has some strong outside cards. For this reason, we have advised that the im- mediate assisting bid of your partner should show a good honor in your suit and good out- side support. If he bids like this you may safely go to 4 or at times 5 with a singleton in their suit and a very strong hand ia the bid, 52 Auction Bids noiv that you know that he has an honor in it. The variety of assisting hands is greater than any single rule; he might have 5 little trumps and none of their suit, etc., etc., but his im- mediate support alleges strong help. If you raise your bid once, but have 2 or 3 in their suit, this is probably as high as you should go. The bid now is with your partner. He will go on with a strong supporting hand and none in their suit or a singleton in it. Such hands ordinarily have all of 2 suits with them and all of the other 2 suits with you and your partner; or such great length in a second suit and shortness in their suits that the chance of the high bid is good. They are marked by un- usual distributions of the cards. It is necessary that you should be able to get in the lead promptly ; for they will surely trump your side suit. Thus if your trumps are without the ace, and you have a long suit besides, they will double; will lead off their singletons. There are many recorded cases of 500 lost here, where the dealer would have made his bid if he had had the first lead. Bidding Against Their First Strong Bid. — This takes a strong hand. The interesting bid- ding is in the hearts against the royals. Your bid is here a forced bid and may be on 6 or Bid Them Up 53 7 hearts or royals with a singleton in their suit, with, of course, some good cards besides, but not good help for a notrump. Your bid of 2 in clubs or diamonds is a forced bid in the sense that, if you bid them here, you must bid 2. But why bid themf Surely not because of great length to the queen or even k, j. Bid Them Up. — Consider the weak notrumps that are bid ; you will have no hesitation in bid- ding two in suit on any good hand. And when your partner does this, remember that his bid is in the nature of a forced bid; possibly for the sake of bidding them up and doubling them. Do not raise his bid to 3 without actual help. Any strong hand that you would be willing to start with a strong bid as dealer, calls for a bid of 2. Those long six and seven-card suits call for such a bid and often with a singleton in their suit may be taken up to 3. But do not bid simply for the sake of bidding them up; the weaker your hand is the greater is the dan- ger that your partner with some high cards may take you to 3 or 4, which you can never make. Do not underrate good adversaries. They know what you are trying to do. Do not run them up without a hand that has a fighting chance in the bid. Your great aid here is in the clubs and diamonds, which often are worth 54 Auction Bids a bid of 3. Especially is the. bid of 3 diamonds a trying bid for them against their bid of 2 notrnmp. Seven diamonds to the K,Q and an outside ace is a great hand for the third bidder to bid up to 3 because you are almost certain to establish it by the benefit of the first lead, With any suit, you are willing to bid as third hand, without anything else, for the sake of having your partner lead it against their no- trump. Therefore you will bid them up, with a good strong hand; with a hand made strong by your bid ; or with a suit as third hand which should be shown against their notrump. Also as second hand where the dealer has called hearts or royals at the score of 16 or 24 against you and you have strength in his suit, you will look for an alternative bid to force him up, for it is likely that he expects to make 2. Assuming that you have a suit against their suit so as to bid them up to 3, can you double them, or should you bid 4, or should you remain quiet? If it is a fighting hand it is a great advantage to have the chance of setting them back. You need five tricks. If you double them have they a way out? If your bidding is on clubs and diamonds, they may have a better bid. This is not likely and if they have bid 3 notrump you have a free double. 1 2 3 H.A.X.X. H.10.9.8.X. H.Q.J.x.x. S,x.x.x. S.A.lO.x.x. S.K.Q.J.9. D.K.Q.x.x. D.A.X. D. C.K.10.X. C.J.X.X. C.Q.9.8.X.X. Bid 4 55 The reader is asked to criticise the follow- ing actual bidding: 4 H.K.x. S.X.X. D.J.10.9.8.X.X.X. C.A.X. Notrump — No — No — 2 diamonds : — No — No — 2 royal — 3 diamonds. — : Double — Eedouble — No — No : — 3 Notrump — Double — No — No. Slight changes in the foregoing will supply illustrations of the possibilities of the fighting diamonds. Consider what are the smallest changes required to make each bid a win- ning bid. Bid 4. Any One Can Always Make 4. — This maxim is equally true with the maxim — No one ever made 4 — in the positions to which each applies; 2 solid suits against 2 solid suits may be a grand slam for either declarer. Therefore with less than this a 4 trick situation is often shown and wherever you see it, proceed with the bid, although your partner has doubled them. Thus my partner bids 1 royal where he might well have bid 2, holding 6 to a,k,q; 4 diamonds to k,q,j,x, and only one heart. The bidding was 1 rl — 2 h — 2 rl — no; No — 3 h — no — ^no; 3 rl — 4 h — double — ^no. Note the bad effect of my immediate support and my double; thus leading 56 Auction Bids my partner to think that we had a great penalty. I had 4 spades to the 10, the ace of their suit and another ace and it was the rubber game. I got those 2 aces and much talk from my part- ner on the occasion of their takiag 11 tricks; for the declarer did not have a spade in his hand. Obviously, the dealer should have gone to 4 royals. His hand is dominated by a suit ; it looks like 9 tricks; my support indicates more than one trick; in fact he has 11 tricks. With any such hand, count all your winning tricks, add 2 for your partner's support and bid the full strength thus shown. Double Them. No One Ever Made 4. — He never made 4 or even 3 where his partner de- ceived him by his bad bid or his bad support and this fact was plain to the adversaries. Thus in the following game, the dealer bid one club on 6 to the q,j,10 and the ace of hearts. 1 club 1 heart 1 royal 2 hearts. No No 2 royal double 2 notrump 3 hearts 3 notrump No No double No No The doubling hand was h,k,j,10,x,x,x, s,x,x, — d, q,x,x,x, — c, ace. The doubler was sure that his partner would not have supported his first bid of hearts without an honor in it. This hand is a good illustration of the advantage of playing Double Them 57 as a partnership. The partner's double of the royal suggests that he may have interposed a false bid in hearts in order to bid up the royals and then double. The partnership rules previ- ously given exclude this bad chance and insure small losses and great penalties. The false bid was the original club bid which led to a 3 no- trump and a great penalty. Note also that the double here was a free double; that is if they made their bid they were out anyhow. Beware of doubling where the effect of the doubling is to double them out if they win their bid. Poor adversaries give you exact information by their bids and make your double a certainty. Here your winning doubles are simple gifts. Against good players the case is very different; here your double is indicated by unusual hands, by something which no good player playing against you is likely to count on. I have seen a fine player redouble a doubled 2 notrump with noth- ing in his hand but 2 four card suits to the jack, because he was sure that the doubler ex- pected to lead off a solid suit which was stopped by his jack. The situation also occurs that against your partner's notrump bid they bid 2 in a suit in which you have 4 or 5 with tenaces over the bidder. Now the question is — Is this a true bid, or has he a solid suit and a way out if you double him; and a sure double if you 58 Auction Bids bid 2 notrumps? This is an annoying question. If he is a player whose bids are always guar- antees of good faith, it may be well to double him and by this information to allow your part- ner to go out with his notrump, if he thinks best. But if he is a shrewd player and you have missing suits, let his bid stand. Do not double any bid of one, except one spade. If your partner bids 2 and is doubled, do not take him out on a worthless suit. Do not double when the effect may be to drive them into a suit where you have no strength and which your partner would have called if he had it, or into a notrump which you cannot defend nearly so well as against their bid. Where you have the option of a sure double or a sure game, take the game unless you are reasonably sure that they are down for 300. If they are bidding so badly as that, they will bid worse. In these cases, however, it is well to notice a fault of over-estimating one's own game; a position which is arrived at by under-estimating at times the ability of a poor player to know a good hand when it is looking at him. A good player gives away his advantage when he overbids his hand, relying upon his skill to take the place of the necessary tricks. In considering a double of their bid of 3 in suit, remember that you must take 5 tricks. Play of the Doubled Hands 59 not 4. If their bid does not take them out, you are giving great odds on your ability to take the 5th trick. Play of the Doubled Hands. — The question of doubling is influenced by the question of how the hands will be played. Notrump — 2 hearts — 2 notrump — double. Lead your suit. No- trump — 2 hearts — no — ^no; 2 notrump — ^no — ^no — double. Here one would think that he should be willing to have me lead a club; for he has not supported the bid. If your suit is to the k,q,j, or k,q,10, lead it; but if there is a tenace as a,q,j,x,x, or k,j, it may be well to put him in with a club, to lead through the declarer. 1 spade no 1 royal 2 hearts no no 2 royal 3 hearts no no 3 royal no no 4 hearts no no 4 royal no no Double Lead a trump. The bid of the dealer on the last round shows that he has none of your suit, or only one. If you have ace, king, in a third suit, lead that before the trump and see the dummy. If the first declarer can have 2 solid suits for all of your hand, better not double. The declarer did not go to 4, because of losing cards, perhaps 3 in your suit. You lead the trump; his trump suit is solid ; dummy has 3 trumps and a single- 60 Auction Bids ton in your suit. The declarer is obliged to lead your suit ; you lead trumps again ; the dum- my gets but one ruff and the bid is set. The play of hands doubled and redoubled is ex- ecrable. In no place is knowledge of the prob- able combinations more necessary or more dis- regarded. The uncommon distribution in your hand and the uncommon bids argue an uncom- mon distribution elsewhere. Well, what do you think it is? What have you a right to expect! The ordinary player, having no idea on the sub- ject, fails of seeing where his necessary trick is; figuring on common plays for uncommon hands, he starts wrong. Next he makes ludicrous errors, because he is confused by the redouble. But I have repeat- edly seen experienced players lose the game here, because they were ignorant of the rule that where the trumps lie between two opposing plaj^- ers and the bid is doubled and redoubled, the players wins who gets the first ruff. For, other- wise, he will have one trump too many and will be obliged to lead to a tenace, with the loss of the trick on which the game turns. If this situation is likely to happen and you hold over the de- clarer's trumps, or have 5 or 6 trumps with a tenace in them, think at the outset whether you will not make him take too many tricks in trumps by forcing him at the start. Consider what will Peculiarities op Auction Play 61 happen if you make him force you first or lead into your hand as he will be obliged to do, if he remains with all his trumps. When you see this impending situation, lead a singleton, or open a short suit. Lead off at once all the winning cards in your short suits; completely reversing the play of ordinary hands. It will be understood that if you have only 4 trumps and a good suit you must force the declarer. This is the usual case which every good player knows. He is not so apt to recognize the case of the uncommon hands, so that the rule above laid down is fortified by many impressive in- stances in actual play. Peculiarities of Auction Play. — There is worse play at auction than at bridge. The de- clarer falls one trick short of winning the game which he could have won; the players fail to save the game. A difference of more than 1,000 points has been made by the failure of the declarer to lay down the winning card. Hands which do not win the game count for little. Let him have his bid if he cannot go out; let him win his bid if you can save the game ; are con- trolling principles in doubtful hands. One rea- son for bad play is that so many suits are shown that the position of the cards is marked. Also a winning position is at once indicated. We must lose the game ; why count all the cards ? 62 Auction Bids I must win; why figure for one more trick? In- fluenced by this ease, attention is relaxed; a trick is lost here and there because there are enough tricks remaining. This is all very well for that hand, but the play runs over into the hands where attention is necessary at every card played. The player becomes careless about counting closely. Thus recently at notrump, I led a low card, showing 4. My partner has 4 and the dummy has 2. How many does he think that the declarer has ? He plays the whole game on the theory that the declarer may have 4 and that it is necessary to lead twice across the declarer. My partner wins with the ace. He had a 8,7,6, and returned the 8. He should have led me the 6 ; for I cannot tell but that the declarer has all the rest. The declarer had k,3,x, and takes with the king ; leads 2 rounds of clubs and puts me in on the third round. My partner has to discard. The dummy hand is weak, but has queen third in spades. They are down if I go on with my suit. He throws the 8 of spades ordering me to lead across that queen. I am very willing to do this because I have the jack of spades. Even this would have done well enough if he had passed the jack. But, no, he plays the ace and returns the dia- mond, losing the game at the score. He said, I had to signal in spades and to go right up Peculiaeities of Auction Play 63 with my ace in order to lead througli his hand if he had the jack and one diamond. This part- ner did not play his bridge hands so badly. This hand is such an instructive hand for the begin- ner that it is well to give his cards — d, a,8,7,6 — c,x,x, — ^h,k,j,x, — S5a,10,8,x. "When he took with the ace of diamonds on the first trick, he should have returned the lowest. When he came to discard he should have discarded the 7, thus showing me that he had 4 originally, because he plays them up from the bottom, or he might have thrown the lowest heart if he feared that my suit was only jack high and wished to be sure of a trick more in it. He should have played to make it as easy for me as possible to lead off my queen. The rule is to lead to your partner's bid. Therefore when my partner has supported my bid and yet opens another suit, it follows that he has led a singleton. In this position, if I think I know it all and distrust my partner, I will lead off the ace of my suit when I get in the lead instead of returning his lead ; they will trump that ace and will prevent him from mak- ing his low trump and thus saving the game. The trouble is that some players will try for a ruff in a 2 card suit, instead of leading to their partner's bid. This play is indefensible. The rules of dummy play hereafter given re- 64 Auction Bids quire careful study on the part of the begin- ner; particularly so of the tables which sum- marize many chapters of discussion and which should be sorted out and considered in each case. For, all rules of play are based on com- mon sense ; if you know the principle by actual trial of it, you will be in a position to apply it. The old dummy rule — Lead through the strength; lead up to the weak — often is appli- cable. Thus, at a critical juncture, the recollec- tion of the bidding points out to you that the declarer's hand must be weak in a suit ; because his partner bid that suit and he did not support that bid, but changed to another bid, obviously not so good if he had strength in his partner's bid. In the next place, remember that in a hand where there is a contest, it often is better to let them make at the start the tricks that they must make. A poor player winning the first trick and seeing the dummy with a sure trick in the partner's suit, changes the suit where if he had gone on he would have cleared the suit for his partner, besides making 2 tricks in the second suit instead of establishing it for the declarer. The situation is common that the honors in a suit are so divided that whoever opens that suit loses a trick. Next, a common fault is taking away your partner's lead im- necessarily in order to save the game by lead- Peculiarities of Auction Play 65 ing off the ace of the suit which you have bid, where your partner is so long in that suit that he can count the declarer as having none of it and is running to save the game. But the great losses come from carelessness. I have seen a distinguished jurist lose 5 tricks in his 7 card suit at notrump where he was in the lead on the third trick and the suit had gone around twice. His highest card in the suit was a 9; he had not noticed the fall of the 10 and was sure that somehow or other that card was out against him and he had no possible entry. Ee- cently I saw a fair player call notrump with 7 diamonds to the ace, king; the ace of a second suit and the king of a third suit. Dummy put down nothing except 3 diamonds to the jack, 10, 2. Their first lead took out his ace. He led the ace and king of diamonds and caught the queen. But on his first lead he had played the 2 of diamonds from the dummy, thus blocking his great suit, so that he took only 4 tricks. The real teacher would be the one who could teach us — not how to play those hands, which are due to happen once every year or two, but — ^how to avoid those errors which are made all the time by those who have played whist all their lives and can tell you every rule in every book. DUMMY PLAY The Supekfluity op Tricks. — All games in the whist group are based upon the principle of the superfluity of tricks. In every deal 3 tricks must be lost ; for as each of the suits has not less than 4 cards in some hand, there are at least 16 tricks with only 13 to play; with 7 card suits we run up to 28, with the certainty that all but 13 of these tricks will be lost. This fact is the foundation of the long suit game and accounts for the very different results obtained by different players on the play of the same hands. The most difficult game is 5 point whist without honors. A trump is turned and no one knows how the strength is divided, nor is there a dummy. The goal is always in sight, with the possibility that it may be reached on the play of any hand. Brilliant players judge a hand and seize the game while the poor player flounders in his long suit. Therefore, wooden players preferred duplicate, which is indeed interesting, but is rather a summary of hands than a game, and an ordinary player who will consistently hold to his long suit makes a better score than the better whist player. Therefore at duplicate, The Superfluity of Tricks 67 it is desirable to show great lenglth in a suit which may be brought in if the trumps are divided, and for this purpose number showing leads were used; which were tolerated at whist by the best players, because of their ability to disregard them when playing to the score, and by the lead of a short suit to confuse and de- range the mind of the ordinary player. Thus in a celebrated game at short whist at the score of 4; 4, the dealer's partner, Mr. Henry Winthrop Gray, held 7 trumps in sequence to the king and his partner, a well known duplicate player, hold- ing A,J,9,x,x, in another suit, allowed the suit to be led through twice and to be trumped on the third round, thus winning the game against him, because he mistook the lead for a 4th best lead. This difference of one trick was a highly important game, but would not be worth trying at duplicate. With the advent of bridge the repute and self-esteem of many players was disturbed. The dummy in sight of all leaves no excuse for the poor player, except that he is a poor player; but if he is as bad as this, he was worse at whist, although entrenched in his sig- nals and echoes and American leads, he did not know it. The play of bridge, and still more of auction suffers in comparison with whist, by the information of the declaration and the exposure of the dummy. Many hands play themselves 68 Dummy Play and you play against a strong bid. But this is more than made up for by the great interest of competitive bidding. By skill in bidding, those hands which play themselves often play for more than they are worth, and you get a penalty against a hand which would be invin- cible at bridge. Your bidding has been shown to be controlled by high cards and by length in suit. Often you find a long suit which you would like to have played as trumps by rea- son of its great length; at other times you find a short suit with an ace in it. Now if you bid both these alike, bidding the suit both be- cause you wish to play it for trumps and be- cause you do not wish to play it for trumps, but wish to show an ace in it so that your part- ner will declare a notrump, the merit of this this style of bidding will have the demerit of putting your partner to a guess. You must de- cide on some mode of play on which he may rely. For this purpose, rules have been given, but these rules are suggestions, made upon a balancing of probabilities and the variety of hands is greater than any rule. The great skill is to see the situations which will defeat the conventional rule. The particular hand con- trols and the ability to see the possible winning combination and to play for it. A different view has been taken by some Giving Information 69 writers, as if the game were made for their rules and not the rules for the game, and some have seemed to think that to violate their rules involves moral turpitude. Thus, Hamilton, a most excellent writer, having laid down rules for long suit leads, considers cases such as where you in defiance of his rules have led a singleton and have saved the game by trumping his ace. His language is like the curse in Tris- tam Shandy: "You have a trick that of right does not belong to you. There is no strategy, no merit in the play. You have practiced a cheap deceit and nothing more." [By trumping my ace] "You have deceived the whole table. You have played falsely" [by trumping my ace.] ***"The language of the cards is confused, the conversation of the game and its intellectual status impaired." [By your atrocious trumping of my ace.] Giving Information. — It seems as if many bridge writers have not sufficiently considered in taking over the old whist rules, the great difference that is introduced by the fact that as a rule the enemies of the declarer are playing against declared strength. Suppose that your partner has doubled the declarer's notrump and the dummy is weak, or suppose that you have a strong hand, or a solid suit which if led will save the game; in these and in all practicable 70 Dummy Play positions, you give your partner all the infor- mation possible. On the other hand, suppose that the declarer has carried his notrump to 3 or 4 and is leading off his good cards, but your partner's suit is established. Often it is apparent that the difference between the de- clarer winning the game or losing a penalty depends on his ability to locate the position of some king or queen against which he must finesse, or the position of an ace. Here your rule should be the rule of non-infor- mation on these points, so as to put him to a wrong guess. The term false card means — a non-informatory card. If you should turn to the declarer and show him that queen, any one would see what a wrong that would be. The same position is arrived at if you tell him the same thing by your discard. The declarer will not claim that "the conversation of the game is impaired" by your clever unconventional play which subjected him to a penalty. Classification By Numbee, — The different ways 52 cards may be distributed is 53,644,737,- 765,792,839,237,440,000. The number of different hands one player may obtain is 635,013,559,600. But the great bulk of these hands while mathe- matically different are practically identical and formed by replacing a card by an equivalent Table op Combinations 71 card. We arrive at reasonable figures by not- ing tbat the hand of any player must consist of one of 39 combinations. There are 39 ways in which the hand may be divided according to the numbers in the 4 svdts, and there are the same 39 ways in which a single suit may he divided by numbers betiveen the 4 hands. To a person fa- miliar with these combinations a doubtful play or finesse is made much more certain. Table op Combinations in Order op Frequency IN 1,000 Hands 4432 215 6430 13 5332 155 5440 12 5431 ...... 130 5530 9 5422 106 6511 7 4333 106 6520 6 6322 56 7222 5 6421 46 7411 4 6331 35 7420 3 5521 32 7330 3 4441 30 8221 2 7321 19 The following occur once : 8311, 8320, 7510, 6610, 8410. The following occur less than once: 9211, 9310, 9220, 7600, 8500, 10210, 9400, 10111, 10300, 11200, 12100, and 13000. The most common 7 card combination is 7,3,2,1. The most common 6 card combination is 6,3,2,2. The 5 card and 4 card combinations comprise about 80 per cent. The 5 card suit is the most 72 Dummy Play common. About 71 per cent, are in the following, in order of frequency— 4432,5332,5431,5422,4333. Frequency of suits in 1,000 hands — 5 card suit — 444; 4 card suit — 351; 6 card suit — 165; 7 card suit— 35 ; 8 or more— 20. In 1,000 deals there are 4,000 hands; that is, the probability that any particular combination will occur some- where in 1,000 deals is 4 times greater. SoKTiNG THE Cards. — Sort the cards deliber- ately. Alternate the colors. Do not put the same suit in the same place. Do not hold the suits apart. Do not place a card in the wrong suit. In particular, do not mistake the ace of diamonds for the ace of hearts. If the beginner never has occasion to notice the force of the above rules, he will be very fortunate. But it is a pleasure to intermit the task of analysis with a tribute to the masquerading ability of the ace of diamonds. Against a notrump at bridge, I have seen a player revoke 3 times on his partners' suit of 6 diamonds, because he had placed the ace of diamonds among his hearts. At auction, I have seen as good a player as any one wants for a partner, bid up to 4 hearts and be doubled; trump the first diamond trick and lead off his ace of hearts, which he now finds to be the ace of diamonds. Counting the Cards. — Certain and correct play rests upon counting the cards up to 13 in Counting the Cards 73 the following manner, and after they are sorted : 5 hearts, 5 ; 2 spades, 7 ; 3 diamonds, 10 ; 3 clubs, 13. Distribution, 5,3,3,2. This plan is a check against later failure of attention. From failure to count the cards correctly, the player revokes and also is unable to remember the hand cor- rectly. This inability develops on the fourth or fifth trick. Playing from this point in the dark, he has no intelligible idea of the distribu- tion of the cards, nor of the results obtainable by correct play. As you count your hand, you must be familiar with the table of combinations and recognize at once whether the distribution is common or uncommon and be ready for trouble in the latter case. The impossibility of counting 13 is testified daily in every club. Cor- rect this fault by a habit of thinking what makes 13, without thinking of 13. Thus 4 are played; you see 9. Attention and Memory. — Do not lay your bad play to lack of memory. You could not forget ; you never knew. The difference between good and bad play is attention — attention — at- tention — continuous attention. Exasperating errors keep occurring through want of attention. If you are in doubt as to your first lead, it is likely that one good player will lead one way and one another ; the game is started well enough and is lost by lack of attention. 74 Dummy Play Ingenuous novices, not necessarily beginners, but high chair players, as they watch a good player, see that he does not play better than they do, nor as well, for his finesse was obvious- ly on the wrong side. When an ace and king are led in a suit of which he has 3,2, he has no brilliant way of taking these high cards with his low ones. Any one would have played his winning finesses the same way, but he is lucky and has tricks given to him; even when he finessed the wrong way, they gave back the trick by leading into his hand ! NoTRUMP Play of Declaeer A. Good Hands. — You, the declarer, can take the first trick and have good suits. Classify the hands by length, strength and tenaces. Thus dummy 7,3,2,1, my corresponding suits 2,5,3,2. Consider the long- est suit, adding up the cards between the 2 hands. Eight at the start, the importance of being familiar with the possible combinations against that suit, is apparent. Also 9 cards between the 2 hands leave only 4 out; if the suit goes around twice, three low cards will be made good. Can I play so that if all the other cards are in one hand, I will still take all the tricks? Beginners are very liable to under- estimate the reasonable chances of establishing a suit of which they hold 9 or 10 cards between the two hands. They have exactly entry cards Out is Out 75 enough to establish the suit if they begin at once. Yet they lead a shorter suit for some finesse which might much better be saved for a later time. Decide upon the play of the whole hand upon the first lead. Shall I Win the First Trick?— Hold off till the third round if you have only one trick, un- less you fear another suit even more. With K,x, and A,x,x, do not win the first trick unless you need the king for an entry. In the follow- ing you need the king for an entry : Dummy S.Q.J.10.9.X.X. H.K.x. C.x.x.x. D.x, A. S.A.x. H.A.x.x. C.A.K.x. D.K.Q.9.8.7. A poor player plays the king of hearts and leads the queen of spades for the finesse. He has blocked the great suit for no one will cover on such a suit as this. The dummy hand is dead. The equivalent of this situation occur frequently and is used in many illustrative hands. It is a long suit which may be established; an entry which need not be lost. What is the Score? — You are supposed to know the score at all times and to know how many tricks you need to win the bid and the game. But as you are about to take your first trick, think of this again and count up the tricks you can surely win. Out is Out. — Kun as soon as you see this po- 76 Dummy Play sition. Do not risk a sure game on a likely finesse. The situation has been seen more than once that against a 3 diamond bid where the declarer has gone 3 notrump, the hand is too good; he sees 9 sure tricks, but thinks that he can get more. Thus in a recent instance the declarer had the K,Q, J, of diamonds ; 4 spades, with 4 in the dummy, including the A,K,Q. ; the A,K,Q, of clubs, with 3 in the dummy, and 6 hearts in the dummy to the A,10, making 9 sure tricks if he leads back the diamond. He leads off the spades, but makes one good against him. Now he tries the hearts and in the exceptional position which was indicated by the 3 diamond bid makes 3 good against him. On their last lead of hearts he finds that he must discard one of his winning clubs in order to protect his dia- monds ! Is THE Caed Led the 4th Best? — It is to be hoped that the leader leads his 4th best, as this is your best help to win a doubtful game easily. If he does, deduct the number of the card led from 11 to find how many cards higher than the card led are not in his hand. Thus, he leads the 7 of diamonds, 11 — 7=4. Dummy has A,Q,10,2. You have 8,4. The 8 will win; his high cards are K,J,9, and you can lead through them. Let the 7 run to your 8 and note the card played by his partner. If it is the 6, the The Long Suit 11 leader had 7. If the 5, he had at least 6. He is short or void of some suit. After a lead or two you can count his whole hand. Here it is to be noticed that some of the text books repre- sent the declarer to be such a phenomenal idiot that with good cards in his dummy he will not cover the 4th best lead, although with nothing in his own hand. The Long Suit. Entry Cards. — The de- clarer establishes his longest suit. He keeps entries in both hands as long as possible, but makes sure of an entry in the hand holding the longest suit. Thus dummy Q,J,10,9,x,x, and one entry ; yours, A,x,x. The finesse looks more rea- sonable than in the former hand, but do not take it unless it is needed for game. Note this case for your guidance when playing against dummy. The second hand should not cover the queen led and the 4th hand with K,x,x, should not take the first trick on your finesse. Then if you have taken the dummy's entry in order to make the finesse the suit is lost. Take in your hand and lead the ace at once and let them make their king if you can count game. Many illustrative hands have the same position, but not so plainly marked; 5 of diamonds led; Dummy S.K.J.10.9.x.x. H.x.x. C.x.x. D.Q.J.IO. A. S.Q.x. H.A.Q.10.X. CA.K.x.x. D.A.x.x. 78 Dummy Play You must overtake with the ace of diamonds and lead the spades. In a common position the en- try is only in the great suit, as dummy A,K,x,x, x,x,x; yours, x,x,x. You lead a low card and let them have the first trick. Be careful not to block the great suit. There is nothing mys- terious about entry cards and blocking the suit, except the carelessness in not seeing the position until one trick too late. With 3 highest cards, 2 in one hand, win the first trick in the 2 honor hand, as K,Q,9,x — A,10,x,x. If you take the first trick in the one honor hand, it may lose you the game. With 2 suits equally long and strong, after winning the first trick the second suit is your longest suit. This position is often over- looked. Thus, dummy has K,Q,J,10,x, in one suit and you have another 5 card suit as good and hold the first trick in one of these suits. It may now be necessary to lead the other suit, count- ing 2 tricks in their suit, 2 in another suit, 1 in the suit you led, 4 by changing to the suit which is now the longest — 9. The same situation may develop with a suit of 4 when they have held off twice in the 5 card suit. Ten ACES. — A tenace is where you hold the highest and lowest against the middle card of any 3 cards ; A,Q, is called the major tenace ; K, J, the minor tenace. If the middle card is on the right the tenace is complete so long as you Tenaces 79 do not have to lead that suit from the tenace hand. Often you force an adversary to lead up to the tenace. A reversed tenace is where the highest card is one hand and the third is in the other. Here do not lead to the highest card unless you have the 4th card also. Thus, with A,x,x,x — Q, J,x, you lead the queen ; it is folly to lead the queen with A,x,x, — Q,x,x. If you are forced to lead you lead to the queen hoping that the king is on the right of the queen; but you try to force them to lead to that queen. Do not lead suits of 3 or 4 in which you have only K,Q, or Q,J, between the 2 hands. Make them lead the suit. Do not finesse for the sake of finessing. A common fault is to lead at once to A,Q, with nothing else in the suit ; H,x, led. Dummy D.A.Q. S.J.x.x.x. H.x.x.x.x. C,9.x,x, A. D.x.x. SA.x.x. H.A.Q. CA.Q.J.lO.x.x. Here A leads to the diamond finesse and fails of game with 9 sure tricks. Declarers have been known to play like this and to be set back with a small slam in hand. But if the finesse must be taken to win the game, take it prompt- ly and before your weakness in a third suit is manifest. The declarer finesses deeply with all his suits protected, often finessing against 2 cards. This must be your rule whenever you 80 Dummy Play can do so safely, in order that the recollection of your play may force the second hand to cover when he holds 2 honors. Particularly with A,J, 10,x,x, at times with A,Q,10,x, or A,K,10,9, or K,Q,10,x, or A,J,9,x, or K,J,9,x. Vulnerable Notrumps. — The 4th best lead may show you that you must play K, or Q, from dummy. Thus 9 led, the queen from dummy will take the trick, although you have not A, or K. Where dummy wins the first trick and the declarer has a trick in the suit if it is led up to him, he leads from dummy and finesses so as to get the lead up to him. Therefore if he has no second trick, but sees from the 4th best lead that L is not sure of the control of the first suit, he finesses all the more because L will change the suit so as to get a lead through, remember- ing that when you finessed before he would have done well by changing the suit. With dangerous hands maintain an appearance of prosperity. Desperate games have been won by leading the worst suit and then the next worse, thus obtain- ing leads up to your tenaces. If you intend any such experiment, do so promptly and with- out showing any natural doubt and alarm. Poor players suspect a trap and will not return the suit you lead first unless they forget what it is. Against such, when there has been no bid in a suit which you fear, you may lead it once Vulnerable Notrumps 81 yourself and get rid of it. Note how the prac- tice of giving them the first trick rather than the third in a great suit (ducking) and the prac- tice of holding back a solid suit helps your sub- sequent play of hands not having these advan- tages. Your main advantages, like prizes at duplicate, come from bad play of the enemy and this should be made easy for them. If you as- sist indifferent adversaries to a trick or tricks which they must make, they become suspicious of those tricks and try to force you to take a trick or two first. They change their suits and every time they lead they kill one of their honors. If you have only the king with small cards, do not make it easy for them to lead across this honor. Try to throw the lead so that they will be forced to lead up to this. Consider- ations like this often determine the side on which you should finesse. The skill of a good player includes the taking at an early stage a necessary finesse when the position is such that if he loses the finesse they will naturally give it back to him by leading up to his hand. The declarer also forces the adversaries to discard on his great suit and obtains information as to the location of their badly protected kings and queens by their discards. The hopeful ad- versaries proceed upon the theory that it is always better to inform your partner than to 82 Dummy Play deceive the declarer, even though the declarer is in the lead and able to keep it. They give exact information as to their weaknefss ^and strength ; of which information the declarer has the first use and returns it marked — Damaged. At every stage, it is imperative for every player to have in mind the distribution which will win or save the game. Play for the winning com- bination as if you saw the cards. Play of Declarer's Left-Hand Adversary. L. NoTRUMP. Lead the Suit Your Partner Has Bid. — This rule is imperative. Lead the lowest of 4 unless you have the winner or Q,J,10,x, or such high cards that you may block him. Lead the highest of 3 or 2. It is a severe error not to show your partner the number of cards in his suit, if you can safely. Opening Leads vs. Notrump — No Suit Shown With Entry. Without Entry. A.K.J.X.X.X.X. A A A.K.10.X.X.X.X. A A A.K.9.X.X.X.X. A Aor X A.K.8.X.X.X.X. A X A.K.J.x.x.x. A A A.K.10.X.X.X. A X A.K.J.X.X. Aor X X A.K.J.x. K K Opening Leads vs. Notrump 83 With Entry. Without Entry. A.Q.J.lO.x.x.x. A Q A.Q.J.lO.x.x. A Q A.Q.J.lO.x. A Q A.Q.J.IO. A A A.Q.x.x.x.x.x. A X A.Q.x.x.x.x. A X A.J. 10.x. or more J J A.10.9.8. or more 10 10 A.10.9.7. or more 10 10 K.Q.J, or more K K K.Q.lO.x, or more K K K.J. 10.x. or more J J K.10.9.8. or more 10 10 K.10.9.7. or more 10 10 Q.J.lO.x. or more Q Q Q.J.9.X.X. or more .Q Q Q.J.9.X.X. X X Q.10.9.8. or more 10 10 In all other cases lead the lowest, unless in a 5 card suit with 2 honors and 2 cards in se- quence higher than the 5, as J,10,7,6,2, where the fourth best may be led. Do not lead the fourth best from a 6 or 7 card suit. Intermediate Sequence. — This system re- quires a low lead from J,10,9,x,x in order that the lead of J or 10 may always show 1 honor above the intermediate sequence. The advan- 84 Dummy Play tage is that you know my suit exactly wlieu A takes the trick. If I lead the J, the other way also and A takes the first trick with Q, and the second with ace, you do not know whether he has K or not. On the other hand, the lead of the J from J,10,9,x,x may be advantageous if the Q is in dummy and you have the K, so that you must choose between the certainty of this system and the possible advantage of re- taining the alternative lead. Every rigid mode of play sacrifices something. Both Pole and Cavendish advise the fourth best from J,10,9, x,x. Having won the first trick with the ace, you place in A's hand any honor not played by your partner E on the ace, unless dummy holds 4 to J or 10, or has none or only one. Where dummy is void and R plays a low card, L knows that R has no help and probably only 3. Having won the first trick with the king, on the lead from K,Q,10,x,x, L knows from the failure of R to play an honor, that A holds both ace and J and that he must change the suit. He leads to take out the dummy's entry. The first suit proving bad, if dummy has a long suit not established and only one entry, the play is to take away that entry. He leads through the strength in dummy, so that if that is his partner's suit it may be cleared and the partner not be forced to lead up to it. Leads op the Fikst Leadee L 85 Often lie leads a supporting Q or J across the K,x,x. He leads the snit which E must have in order to save the game. The situation is that his first suit is against him; a second is shown against him on the lead of A. At auction the game is probably gone, for E has shown no suit. Some- times he has a good suit which has been shut out by the other bids. If there is any possi- bility of any such suit, you must lead on the chance of it. He returns the declarer's forced lead. Here the suit of L is between A and L so that either will lose a trick by leading it. A puts dummy in the lead with a second suit and leads from dummy a third suit for a finesse. It is very likely that the second suit is in the nature of a forced lead and that he has not more than one more trick in it. Consider this possibility care- fully. He cannot have all the cards in all the suits. He finessed into your hand, what is his worst suit? Here the failure of E to bid may show that A has something in the fourth suit. Here you may be helped by an echo by E. Consider whether your partner's card in that suit is not unnecessarily high. Suppose it is the 5 and the 2, 3 and 4 do not appear either in dummy or in your hand. Is there any possible reason to think that A has these 3? This is an 86 Dummy Play extreme case, for it will ordinarily happen that if E wishes that suit led, he can play a fairly high card. Your decision must be carefully made; if the second lead of A was not forced, the fourth suit must be led; if it was forced the lead must be returned. "Where the declarer's partner bid El or H and A went to a notrump which has fair cards against it in your hand, it is likely that he has nothing in the suit first bid. Often a good lead is suggested by this position. Leadee^s Play as Second Hand. Second Hand Low. — 1 — On low card unless you have three high cards. 2 — On high card led as through K,x,x,x, to A,x,x. 3 — When you can block the suit by not taking the high card, as with A,x,x. But with A,x you play A on K or Q where dum- my does not show J also, unless the dummy has 7 and no entry. With more than 2, do not put up your high card to beat the dummy Q or J for your part- ner's honor may fall on the same trick or be lost on the next trick. Will A dare finesse against your two high cards? Few finesse against two honors; if they are leading to A,Q,10,x in D, they play the Q here ; holding, K, J,x it is folly to play J. Second Hand High. — Cover an honor led un- less the cover is useless, where you see all the Second Hand High 87 other cards in dummy. With two honors, con- sider the whole situation and have your mind made up before the lead is made. 10 led— A.Q.x. K.J.x.x. play A 10 led— A. J.x.x. or A. J.x. K.Q.x.x. " x 10 led— K.Q.x.x. A. J.x.x. " x 10 led— K.Q.x. A. J.x.x. " Q 10 led— K.J.9. A.Q.X.X. " J 10 led— K.J.x. A.Q.x.x. " K Cover when the cover will make you a lower card good. A bad cover is where A leads to catch the Q and has a sure finesse on either side, if he knows where the Q is. Where A leads J to A,x,x,x, in dummy, his lead may be from K,J,10,x, and if you do not cover he will play the ace and finesse on the second round. Assuming that you are the ordinary player, you should receive valuable information as to your mode of play here. Absorbed in the thought of what will happen to your long suit, you find that the declarer has led across a high card in your hand; you start as if you see a snake and the declarer has a touchdown for which you supply the football and the brass band. Never hesitate when your hand is led through. With only low cards you cannot hesi- tate, then why tell him all about it? Plave your mind made up before he leads. The declarer 88 T)uMMY Play leads to K, J,x in dummy ; you have A,x. What are you writhing for? You are not thinking of playing the queen, are you? No, you are telling him that you have the ace. Likewise, if you have nothing in the suit led, it is not neces- sary to tell them ; you should play exactly alike in each case. Now the declarer does not know anything about whether you have the high card or not and your partner may have some fine coup. With ace, queen only or king, jack only, or queen, 10 only, he may play the high one first, so that the declarer shall surely finesse the second time. Thus the leader opens his suit which the declarer wins and leads 9 to dummy's A,Q,10,x,x ; R, with K, J only, does not win with the jack on the double finesse, but wins with the king and proceeds to clear his partner's suit of which he has a third card to give him. The declarer having won the next trick finesses the clubs again and plays the 10, being sure that L has the jack. The point of such a play is that you make it when the declarer's hand is too good and you see that he has a game but is trying for extra tricks before he is obliged to run for game. Your partner's suit not being established, it is a slam for the declarer if he can win both finesses and very properly he tries at once. Now if you win with the jack and establish your partner's suit, the declarer Declarer's Left -Hand Adversary L 89 being a good player will not take the next finesse until after he has led off enough win- ning cards for game, but in the times where such plays are made the good player does not think that there is any possible risk. NoTRUMP, Declarer's Bight-PIand Adver- sary, R. — E, the player at the declarer's right, is the worst player of the lot, and loses many games by his bad plays and discards. 1. He refuses to give exact information on L's high lead. 2. He does not unblock. 3. He does not finesse to beat the dummy, but does finesse against his partner. 4. He plays unnecessarily high cards. 5. He does not return the leader's suit. 6. He does not know when to change the suit. 7. On A's lead, he takes the trick too soon, or not soon enough. 8. He does not cover the dummy honor led, unless when it is plain that he should not. 9. He shows his hand to the declarer, by his discard when the declarer is in the lead. A Picture on a Picture is the great help to the leader. He does not lead the king from A,K,x to take a look ; his high leads will be good if E has an honor; all he asks is to be told whether this is so or not. The refusal to play the queen on the leader's ace is wicked, but the 90 Dummy Play refusal to play the jack on Ms king has lost more tricks than any other third-hand play. The rule is all important for the cases where you do not hold the honor; and these are the more frequent cases. By the low play under this rule, the leader knows what high cards the de- clarer has. If dummy has none, or only one, or has such cards that this rule will make a good card for him, you may play your second best; but you must have some good reason for deviating from the rule and the reason must be as apparent to the leader as to yourself. If L leads ace, play your king or queen. If he leads king, play your ace or jack. If he leads queen, play your ace or king. If he leads jack play your highest card, unless there is a finesse against the dummy. If he leads the 10 from an intermediate sequence, you finesse against the dummy, or if there is no finesse, you play your highest card; always using ordinary com- mon sense and knowing whether the lead is from a long suit or not. If it is first lead, it is his longest suit unless he has bid a suit, or unless you can see that he would have bid the suit if he had the high cards which the long suit lead indicates. With 4 in his suit do not play the lowest on his high lead. 2. Unblocking. — Do not block the leader's suit. The rule of a picture on a picture covers Finesse to Beat the Dummy 91 many cases given in the books as instances of unblocking, as where you play A or K with only 2. Unblocking is of two kinds. You play high to inform the leader and to get out of his way. You discard a high card so that the leader can overtake your small card led. This second and frequent situation is invariably misplayed by fair players. When you have to discard the leader's suit, keeping only one to return, keep the lowest. Thus L leads from A,9,x,x, you have Q,J,x, and the declarer has K,10,x. A takes your J with K and leads a long suit on which you have to discard one of the leader's suit. Your discard of the small card blocks the leader's suit; you must throw the Q. Now the leader knows that you have a small card to give him and that his suit is good if you can get in to lead it. 3. Finesse to Beat the Dummy. — Dummy's. Yours. Play. K.X.X. AJ.X.X. J. K.J.x. A.9.X. 9. K.lO.x. A.9.X. 9. Q.x.x. A.J.x. J. Q.X.X. K.10.X. 10. J.X.X. K.lO.x. 10. This rule secures to you the advantage of a fourth best lead without the exposure of the 92 Dummy Play leader's hand which is given by the fourth best lead where you have no support in his suit. Do not finesse if it will block the suit; never when such a blocking requires that he shall be twice in the lead before his suit is cleared. Thus, dummy's K,x,x, yours A,J,x. Play ace, then jack. In the application of any such rule, it is understood that you must use common sense. You are giving them a trick to make sure of saving the game. If the dealer has called the notrump and the dummy has little help, you may have a hand where you need this ace, as with a suit which seems better than the leader's suit; or the leader may have made a bid and be trying to get you into the lead. In finessing to beat the dummy, it is safe to assume that the leader has three cards in his hand higher than the 6 spot. Therefore, if you see in the dummy hand and yours, four cards higher than the 6, this leaves one for the declarer and the chances are that it is the highest missing card. Thus, if the card he holds may be either an ace or a 10, the chances are that it is the ace. The rule for leading intermediate sequences often makes the position clear; but good players finesse to beat the dummy whether a fourth best card is led or not. A bad play is to finesse against your partner. This means that there is nothing in the dummy to finesse against and Declarer's Right-Hand Adversary R 93 that you should play your highest card (remem- bering, however, that of two or more cards in sequence you should play the lowest). Poor players with the ace, queen of their partner's suit, play the queen and let the declarer's sin- gleton king win the trick. Of if he leads the jack, they refuse to play their ace, thus allow- ing the declarer's queen to make where the part- ner has led from the king, jack, ten. 4. Beginners do not see the importance of playing the lowest of equal cards, with K,Q, J ; they will play the king. Always win with the lowest possible card. Be accurate in the play of low cards. If you have the 6 and 7 and play the 7, your partner will put the 6 in the de- clarer's hand and may lose the game by thus being forced to miscount the declarer's hand. The beginner does not realize that to save the game requires that he shall give as exact and careful information as possible of all matters which do not help the declarer and may help his partner. 5. Do not change suits without a strong rea- son. The rule is to return the leader's suit unless the dummy has more than one trick in it. Be sure to return the highest of three. With four, if you have an honor in your remaining three cards, lead the honor; but with three in- different cards remaining, return the lowest, unless there is danger of blocking the suit. 94 Dummy Play Suppose that the leader leads his suit and that you have five in it and are about to return the suit and have an honor in it. If it is the win- ning honor, of course, you must lead it ; but if not, there are two dangers. If you lead the high card, your partner may have only four and may block you ; if you lead low, he may fear that you have no more and change the suit. The rule is to return the lowest card of five. 6. On the leader's low lead, change the suit with: 1. A suit to be established in one lead and a sure entry. 2. A suit to be established in two leads and two entries. 3. A strong play- ing hand and only two in the suit led, particu- larly so, if that suit is short in dummy. This having only two is often the only good reason for changing the suit. In this case, you may have a good suit and weakness in the dummy to lead up to. Or the dummy may be so strong in your partner's suit that it is folly to go on with that suit. Do not fear to lead up to a suit of which dummy has only the ace. Consider whether you should not lead at once to take away dummy's only entry. This at times de- mands a change of suit; as where dummy has a very long suit in which you have a trick ; and you see that if you take away the entry, the hand will be dead. 7. Do not take the first trick in their suit Declarer's Eight-Hand Adversary E 95 too soon. Make sure of blocking the long dunmiy suit and with a A,x,x hold off till the third trick. Thus dummy has 6 to the queen and nothing else. The declarer leads the jack, then the king. The common and bad play is to take this second trick, giving dummy three tricks if the declarer has a third card in the suit. Also where the declarer leads to A,Q, J,x,x, in dummy and you have K,x,x, it is bad play to take at once. Play low, without any hesitation, so that the declarer will finesse again, if your partner's suit is not established. Also it may be that you have 5 to A,10,9,8,x and an entry. The declarer leads K to dummy's Q,J,x,x,x. Your best play probably is not to take the first trick, but to take the second and return the suit. With the ace and one, it ordinarily is bad to hold off, because the ace must fall on the second round and by taking their king or queen at once you may make an honor good for your partner. 8. Cover the dummy honor led, unless the cover is plainly useless. If dummy has Q, J,10,x and you have K,x,x,x, it is idle to cover and by holding off the declarer may have to play his ace or block the suit. So if dummy leads the jack from K,J,10,x and you have Q,x,x you will play low without hesitation. 9. Do not show your hand to the declarer by your discard when the declarer is in the lead. 96 Dummy Play In the hands which are bid up to 3 or 4, it often happens that the declarer would have his bid at double dummy, but now he is in doubt as to the position of a king or a queen and may lose his bid if he makes the wrong finesse. The case just given where you have the queen third, shows the injury which may be done by a bad discard in this suit where it is necessary to make the queen to save the game, for the de- clarer having a finesse on either side can win the queen if he knows where it is. He leads a long suit, forcing a discard and if your part- ner discards one of his worthless cards in your queen suit, the declarer concludes that you have the queen. Therefore when you have two or three worthless cards in a suit in which the dummy is strong, often it is necessary for you to hold every one of them and to discard any other suit than this, in the hope that by so doing you may make the declarer finesse on the wrong side. Also it is a very important rule that if you have four cards in the dummy's suit, you should keep every one of them if the declarer is in the lead. Thus in a hand published as showing the advantage of discarding from strength, and the danger of discarding from a weak suit, the declarer has allowed the leader's suit to be established on the second round, but it happens that you have no more. You have The Discaed 97 two worthless clubs; A,9,7,5,4 of diamonds and 9,7,5,4 of spades. The dummy has in spades Q,8,6,3,2. The declarer now leads five roimds of clubs and it is expected that you as a weak discarder will throw away these spades. This is the last thing that you will think of doing as a weak discarder. As such you will discard three diamonds without an echo, so that the declarer shall not know that you have the ace of diamonds. Any such suit is not a worthless suit; there is an excellent chance of a trick in it where the dummy has five; and even if the declarer has the other four he cannot overtake in the dummy hand if you keep all of them. The Discaed. — Discard from weakness. If you are obliged to discard your good suit and wish to inform your partner, discard a card in it which he can see to be unnecessarily high. Discard to protect the two hands and deceive the declarer. The first rule answers such a question as. Supposing that I am the first leader and have led a suit and the declarer has taken the trick and has led a second suit which I take and you discard a 2 spot from a third suit, what do you mean by it I You mean weakness in that suit by the concurrent testimony of nearly all good players; that is, you may play for months without meeting any one who discards differently. But it has been strongly urged that 98 Dummy Play you should mean strength and that this is the suit that you wish led. It may be desirable for you to ask some stranger how he discards, and it is to be hoped that he will not follow the rule given in one of the latest books and answer, "I discard safely." The statement which is made by my low card discard is that this is a weak suit. And the reason why this discard has been so universally accepted is that it saves your strong suit where the declarer is playing a weak notrump ; and that it enables you to pro- tect your hand where he is in the lead and playing a strong notrump. For in the latter case, being known as a discarder from weak- ness, you will often discard from your strong suit in the hope that the declarer may mistake your discard. Thus Hoyle says under the head- ing of "Particular Games to Endeavor to Dis- tress and Deceive Your Adversaries," "If a suit is led of which I have none and a moral certainty that my partner has not the best of that suit, in order to deceive the adversary I throw away my strong suit; but to clear up doubts to my partner, when he has the lead, I throw away my weak suit." Thus in a common situation where my partner's suit is established, I may throw my strong suit and hold a worth- less suit in the hope that the declarer if he misses an honor in each of the remaining suits, The Discard 99 will finesse wrongly. Here the last thing to have known is the position of the missing honors. Note carefully that in order to obtain the position intended by Hoyle the discard if made in the strong suit is a false card to the partner as well as to the dealer, made with the intention of not telling either of them where the strength is, unless the card appears to be unnecessarily high. It seems that the force of this position has not been considered by the excellent bridge writers who have favored the strong discard. They see plainly the need, which a poor player does not see, of protecting the hand, but the remedy of telling the declarer where their strength is, when he is in the lead, is a losing game. On the foregoing principle the declarer is put to a guess, which may be a bad one for him. He may suspect that I have that king, although I have promptly thrown that suit, but he would much prefer to know that my first discard is from strength. If to this it is an- swered that the strong discarder can falsecard also, he may not be able to do this with the short suits ; and in so far as his arguments are good as to the need of protecting these short suits, they turn against his discarding from them. 100 Dummy Play If only one suit is shown and you are called on to discard at notrump, your partner will look carefully to see if you throw an unneces- sarily high card and if you do he will lead that suit. But if you have to make two discards and discard the same suit without an echo ; that is, without discarding the second time, a card lower than the first card, he will conclude that you are willing that he should lead either of the other suits and will lead the suit in which he can help you the better. This high discard is also used to show what suit to lead; as where you have an established suit which your partner is out of, you discard as high a card as you safely can in the suit in which you have an entry. Declaeee^s Play. Teumps. — 1. He takes out the trumps and reduces the game to a notrump, with the advantage of having enough trumps left to bring in some good suit. 2. He estab- lishes a cross ruif and by starting in to do this forces the enemy to lead trumps in cases where it is better that the trump lead shall come from them. His play is bad if he does not at once dis> criminate between hands where he must lead trumps and hands where he must first lead for a ruif. This fault occurs in hands that are too good; that look sure, but are not sure in every way. He fails of game at one time because he Establishing an Entey 101 did not draw the trumps and at another time be- cause he did draw the trumps. His mistake in the first situation is emphasized by the fact that he lets the enemy trump some of his good cards. The fear of this causes him to overlook the situation where his game depends on two ruffs in dummy. He seems to have trumps enough, but they are badly divided; one of the adver- saries has three or four and leads them back, because he sees that the game is lost unless he can stop the impending cross ruff. If he leads for the ruff in dummy they will lead the trumps for him, but will not have leads enough to pre- vent his necessary ruffs. The declarer fears the singleton excessively and gives up the winning finesse on account of his fear. He does not take advantage of the invariable habit of some players never to lead low from an ace or king. If you as declarer have a suit with only two honors in it, try to play so that the enemy will have to lead that suit rather than lead it yourself, particularly so if there are only three in each hand. Establishing an Entry. — With a winning hand, the declarer often fails of game by not making certain of an entry. Many illustrative hands at bridge show these positions and each one is plain enough and yet is misplayed by the beginner because he does not give early at- 102 Dummy Play tention to what is going to happen in the play of the last four tricks. Supposing that you have six trumps and dummy has three — ^nine in all. You lead these trumps twice and it happens that the other four are taken out. This may happen well enough and when it has happened you find that all your trumps are higher than the one left in dummy; and you cannot put him in by leading a low trump from your hand, although he has tricks in an established suit of which you have none. Such carelessness is frequent. In another standard position the declarer blocks the dummy's entry by refusing to overtake the dummy's high card, as where the dummy has K,Q only and you have A,x only. In another position, he blocks his own trump suit where he has A,x,x, of trumps in dummy and the other high honors in his own hand and needs to have two ruffs in dummy. Always remember the bids. This is so vital that it is assumed that it is unnecessary to keep on telling you this. Where L does not lead to his partner's bid, it is almost certain that he has led a singleton, but he may have two. Your familiarity with the combina- tions is of the greatest aid here. If you see unusual distributions in your own hand and dummy, consider your mode of playing these hands carefully before you play a card. If you Opening Leads Against Trumps 103 see singletons, consider his card led to be a singleton and make certain that he shall not have too many ruffs, or any if you can help it. Always remember the score and always take the game. If a finesse is necessary for game, take it even if the loss of it will lose your bid. Opening Leads Against Trumps — No Suit Shown In Order of Preference A.K.Q.J. Lead K. then J. A.K.Q. " K. then Q. A Singleton " Singleton. A.K. only << A. then K. K.Q. only " K. - Q. K.Q.J. + a K. " Q. K.Q.10. +■ "■ K. Q.J.IO. + " Q. A.x.x. or A.x. ii Small card. A suit of 2, holding A.Q.x.x. K.Q.x.x. or K.J.x.x in your ' ' Highest of long suit K.J.lO.x. (C J. K.Q.X.X. 11 K. A long weak suit " Lowest A forced lead from 3 " Middle card The singleton is the declared enemy of the trump declaration. If you can stop the trump lead, the singleton is better than to show the K in an ace, king suit, for R will not take your 104 Dummy Play second lead for a singleton. If your only fonr- card suit is trumps and you have to lead a three- card suit without a sequence, many good play- ers at times lead the worthless middle card in order to be able to show a lead from 3, ordi- narily indicating that they wish a lead to some tenace in their hand. Ace followed by K means that you have no more and wish to trump. The low lead from A,x or A,x,x is a trying lead to the declarer. Thus in actual play, L leads C,2 ; dummy plays J from K, J,x, which E won with q, returning the c to the lead from Ax. L wins and later obtains a ruff, saving the game. Contrast this situation with the comfortable position of a declarer playing against a leader who never leads low from an ace. This case requires judgment. You cannot afford to have it known that you never lead low from an ace. You will not do so against a strong chance of having your ace trumped, or in any unusual distribution, but where you hold a hand divided 4,4,3,2 for example, there is not much risk in leading low from an ace in one of the short suits. The lead of the highest of two is ordinarily an invitation to E. to lead to a tenace in some other suit, rather than in the hope of a ruff. Every one hates to lead from K,J,x,x, but this prejudice must not be too strong, for E may The Long Suit Game 105 have both A,Q,x, in which case he will never lead the suit. The Long Suit Game. — With four trumps the possibility of being able to establish a long suit and break the declarer's hand by forcing him on your long suit must always be played for, if it looks in any way plausible. Thus in the dis- tribution 5,4,3,1 with four trumps to an honor and a good five-card suit, the long suit may be a much better lead than the singleton. Suppose that you have bid this suit and that B has sup- ported you. You lead the suit; declarer is forced to ruff, having six trumps. He leads trumps three times and the third time you can take the trick. You go on with the long suit and force him again. Now it takes his last trump to draw yours and if E can take a trick in your singleton suit, the declarer is down. Or he may have only five trumps with such strength in your singleton suit that the advantage of that lead to him wins his game, while your strong forcing game would have beaten him. It will be understood, then, that the singleton lead is a chance for saving the game and that with a strong playing hand with four trumps, the long suit game is better. Tkumps. Play of Declarer's Right-Hand Adversary, R. — Is the lead a singleton? What is the score and the bid? 106 Dummy Play The Play on High Card Led. — You must give immediate and sure information on the lead of a high card. The Call for a Euff. — This is the most valu- able signal at bridge and auction. When L leads K, signal if you have only two, both below the 10 ; that is, play the higher card first. When you play the next and lower card, L knows that you have no more and that you will trump the third round. Do not signal with an honor unless the position is shown by the dummy, as where dummy has Q,x,x, yours J,x; or dummy Q,J,x, yours 10,x. If you play J on K, he thinks you have Q, only or no more and leads low, losing a trick. At bridge do not confuse L by using this signal also to show that you can take the third trick in the suit if it will go round three times, leaving him in doubt whether you mean that you can win by a ruff or by a high card in the suit. When L leads K then A, and you play 2,3, he knows that you have at least one more. This is the best you can do, unless you wish to make him continue the suit and force the declarer as may well be if you are strong in trumps so that you can play for your own hand. At auction, the declarer has the trumps and with Q,x,x, or Q,x,x,x, with three in dummy, it may be well to signal. Play the Smallest Card You Can 107 The Encouraging High Card. — L leads ace; you have K. Play as high as you can afford so as to encourage him to go on. If you play a small card, he will change the suit. With Q,x,x,x on L's lead of K, if dummy has three it is likely that A will trump the third round. Therefore if you prefer to have L change the suit, as to lead through the dummy to strengthen your hand, you will not encourage L to go on with the first suit. Do not finesse against the leader. Play ace on Q led where K is not in diunmy. But with J led, if dummy holds K or Q and does not cover, you will play low unless the immediate play of the ace is necessary to save the game. Play the Smallest Card You Can. — Abso- lute accuracy in the play of indifferent cards is demanded, because L counts in the declarer's hand any card denied by the third hand. This includes the play of the lowest of a sequence. Do not sacrifice an honor on your partner's short lead. Suppose you have 4 to K or Q and L leads a card from what cannot be a strong suit, play low as your only chance of saving a trick by the necessity now put upon the declarer of getting enough times in the dummy hand to catch the honor. At times, he will think that L holds the honor. The play of the high card is especially bad when by not playing high you 108 Dummy Play will have a sure trick; thus he leads 10, yours K,J,x. Having won a trick, E holding A,K in another suit, shows this by leading K. Or holding a strong suit, or K,Q,J, he may lead that. Here he considers all the facts of the bids, and of the cards shown. Particularly he thinks again whether L's first lead was a singleton. If E has bid a suit and L has not, the opening lead from L of another suit must be a singleton. His lead of a singleton here shows that he expects either that you will win the trick or that one of you can stop the impending trump lead. Lead to the Weakness in Dummy. — ^No suit having been shown, L has led a card which seems a short lead or is marked as such by the play, and you win the trick. You infer that L wishes a ruff and return the lead. Before any such play, consider whether the lead may not be an invitation card from a fairly strong hand with tenaces and some strength in trumps. The great rule of dummy whist is to lead through the strength up to the weakness. Are you short in trumps? Can you save the game by trying to ruff L? At auction the situation is likely to be more clear from the bid of L. He has bid a suit and has not led it, you not having sup- ported his bid. If dummy has three weak cards in that suit the declarer has some strength in Lead to the Weakness in Dummy 109 it. Shall I lead through the declarer up to the weakness 1 If you have no singleton and dummy has none, it is likely that L has two cards in his invitation lead. May he not also have four trumps and an honor? All these questions must be considered. If you do not see any peculiar distribution of the cards, it is better to lead to his suit up to weakness in dummy, and in this case A,x,x in dummy may be counted as weak- ness. Let your rule be to lead to his suit, unless you have strength enough in it to be willing to have him lead it to you after you have given him a ruff. Also lead to the weak dummy hand rather than to try to force your partner, unless you are willing to have him lead you the weak dummy suit, or through some honor in dummy. If your hand is so strong as to control the situa- tion, do what you like and try in every way to give L a ruff. But where you are not likely ever to be in the lead again, or only once, and you try to force L because he has opened a short suit, his trump strength is destroyed and he is forced to lead away from his tenaces up to the declarer. In leading to weakness in dummy, see if you cannot safely lead such a high card as to beat the dummy, so that the declarer will be forced to cover. The importance of gettiag an unprotected ace out of the dummy is great. If you have 110 Dummy Play something, but not tlie K, the lead up to the ace may clear the suit for you, particularly if you have a sequence to lead. So where a card in dummy is an entry for a strong dummy suit, you often play to take away that card. Always lead the top of a sequence, if you open a sequence suit. If you have to lead a suit of three lead the top unless it is an honor. If you have 2 honors in sequence in the three-card suit lead the top from K,Q,x, Q,J,x or J,10,x; but with Q,x,x lead the middle card unless it is your part- ner's bid. At auction more than one suit is pretty sure to be shown. Therefore the play against the declarer is simplified by the rule to lead that suit, if it is your partner's suit. Now the situation occurs, that dummy is short of that suit. Can you safely lead trumps? Always lead trumps if you see a double-cross ruff im- pending. Stop the dummy's ruff if you do not have reason to fear a solid suit led against you after the trumps are exhausted. If you see that they are surely game, you may as well save what tricks you can. In returning the original lead or leading to your partner's bid, lead the winning card if you have it, irrespec- tive of number, but in other cases show your length in the suit by returning the lowest of four and the highest of three or two and with less than four play the suit from the top down. Fourth Best Lead 111 This is a point often overlooked. You have 7,3,2 in your partner's suit and he puts you in, say, by leading to your bid. You lead the 7, of course. He wins and leads a high card, you should play the 3, not the 2. But you say, there is the risk that he may think that I had only 2. This is true enough and is an objection to the rule, but in practice the objection is thought to be more than counterbalanced by the fact that if you play this way, called "playing down and out," as soon as you play the lowest card out, your partner knows that you are out of the suit and may give you a sure ruff if you had only two. Thus you lead him the 7, he wins with Q and leads ace, on which you play the 2. He knows that you have no more and that you can ruff the third lead. Fourth Best Lead^ 11 Eule. — If we num- ber the cards from 2 up, the highest is 14, and by taking the number of the card from 14 we know how many cards in the suit are higher than that card and three of these are in the leader's hand, on the fourth best lead. There- fore by taking the number of the card from 11 we know how many cards, higher than the card led, are not in the leader's hand, if the leader leads his fourth best. With a four-card suit, the lowest is also the fourth best. When it is said, as is now said, Do not lead the fourth best 112 Dummy Play at trumps, the reference is to the lead of a suit having more than four cards. At trumps, with such a lead and the declarer's false card, the partner may be unable to tell whether the lead is from 7,6,5,4,3,2, or 1. Abandoning the fourth best, the declarer's attempt to falsecard becomes ludicrous because it marks him with the missing cards which he is trying to conceal. Thus your partner leads C,5 ; you win with the king and return the ace, on which he plays the 2. The important rule of playing a short suit, which rule is called "Down and Out," has been previously stated. Inasmuch as on the second play your partner played the lowest card that was out, you know that he has no more, if you know that he does not lead the fourth best. In this instance, the declarer played first the J and then the 7 and my partner — a fourth best player — did not count my hand and give me the ruff which would have saved the game. At notrump many good players lead the fourth best. One advantage of this is that if they lead the lowest card of a suit, you see that they have only four and this may be important for you to know, as showing that the declarer has more cards in that suit than your partner. Also, on the high card lead, you may at times see all the higher cards but one between you and the dummy; so that the declarer is marked with Fourth Best Lead 113 only one high card. And it may be plain that it is either the ace or the 9, or is either the king or the 10, etc. You justly infer that the declarer of the notrump is likely to have the higher card and finesse to beat the dummy, with a comparatively safe position instead of a very doubtful one. If you are playing habitually with poor play- ers, you can both eat your cake and have it; for your card is more informatory, and if one of these players is the declarer, he does not count and is wholly ignorant of the powerful weapon that the disclosure of a long, ragged suit gives him; both by enabling him to count the hand and to take a sure finesse which other- wise he would not think of taking. The lead of the top of an intermediate sequence to the Q or J or 10 is the limit of safe high-card leads. If the suit is more vulnerable than this, the advan- tage of the lead is greatly with the declarer, if he is a good player. My objection to the lead is from the great benefits that I have seen the declarer obtain from the lead; and because a good player will in the proper situations finesse to beat the dummy, without the exposure of the fourth best lead which occurs when he does not have cards to beat the dummy. This is espe- cially so with a seven or six-card suit where the partner may often be marked with only 114 Dummy Play one, thus showing that he cannot return the suit, and revealing one-half of the leader's hand to the declarer, so that in a few more leads he can tell every card in both hands. Therefore in tournament hands the leader is always required to open his fourth best and upon this disastrous lead the declarer proceeds to make a grand slam without any trouble. If you will take any book which contains illustrative hands you will find that the advantages are either with the declarer or he is made out a very poor player or play- ing against very poor players. Thus to show the advantage of the fourth best lead, the illus- trative hand in Dalton's Bridge Abridged makes the leader lead the 5 of diamonds ; dummy has 4 to K,9,6,3 and does not cover, although the declarer has not a diamond in his hand! Com- pare this with hand 8 in the American Bridge Abridged, where the leader leads 6,s from J,9,7,6,3; the dummy has A,10,8,4 and the de- clarer has K,5,2. He applies his 11 rule and gets his usual grand slam. And these illustra- tive hands in the books are fairly representa- tive for the following reason. If all the higher cards are with the partners, there is no advan- tage in the lead; but if all or some of them are with the declarer and dummy, he wins the game by the information given him, deriving an even greater advantage from the ability to count the Fourth Best Lead 115 leader's hand than from the sure, low finesses which are indicated. Thus take the lead of the 7 from K,J,9,7,x,x,x. There are hundreds of combinations against the lead; the only favor- able one is dummy's Q,x,x ; yours A,10,x, where a good player will always play the 10. Dummy might have Q,8,x,x; yours A,10; but here you must at once play your ace and return the suit, so as not to block it. In the six-card suit there is also dummy's Q,8,x,x against your A,10,x, where also you must play your ace and clear the suit; for your partner's suit is shut out by your attempt to catch the Q unless you can put him twice in the lead. In the five-card suit there is a distribution occurring twelve times in 1,000 according to the tables, 5,4,4,0. Assuming that the declarer has made his notrump on only three suits, which is even more unlikely than this unlikely combination, it is possible that the dummy shall have Q,8,x,x against your A,10,x,x, in which case the Q may be captured. This is the only favorable position of 7 from K,J,9,7,x for thje lead in the thousands of combinations, always assuming that the play is with good play- ers. The beginner will find it greatly to his ad- vantage to sort out and play other combina- tions; for in no other way can he arrive so quickly to actual knowledge of the possibilties of different hands and the right ways of finessing 116 Dummy Play as by this. This knowledge is even more impor- tant than whether he leads one way or another because he has made his own analysis of the strength and weakness of the high cards accord- ing to their possible distributions ; and if he un- derstands this, he has actual card sense. THE LAWS OF AUCTION BRIDGE By Permission of the Whist Club of New York The Rubber 1. The partners first winning 2 games win the rubber. Scoring 2. A game consists of 30 points obtained by tricks alone. 3. Every deal is played out, and any points in ex- cess of the 30 necessary for the game are counted. 4. "When the declarer wins the number of tricks bid, each one above 6 counts toward the game 2 points when spades are trumps, 6 when clubs are trumps, 7 when diamonds are trumps, 8 when hearts are trumps, 9 when the bid of Royals (or Lilies) is made in the spade suit, and 10 when there are no trumps. ' ' 5. Honors are ace, king, queen, knave and 10 of the trump suit ; or the aces when notrump is declared, 6. Honors are credited in the honor column to the original holders, being valued as follows: 3, 4, 5, honors held between partners equal the value of 2, 4, 5, tricks respectively ; 4 in one hand equal the value of 8 tricks and if the partner holds the other honor equal the value of 9 tricks; all in one hand equal the value of 10 tricks. When notrump is declared 3 aces 118 The Laws of Auction Beidge held between partners count 30 and 4 aces 40, but 4 aces in one hand count 100, 7. Slam is made when 7 by cards is scored, inde- pendently of tricks taken as penalty for the revoke ; it adds 40 points to the honor count. 8. Little slam is made when 6 by cards is similarly scored; it adds 20 points to the honor count, 9. Chicane (one hand void of trumps) is equal in value to simple honors. Double chicane is equal in value to 4 honors, 10. The value of honors, slam, little slam or chicane, is not affected by doubling or redoubling, 11. At the conclusion of a rubber the trick and honor scores of each side are added, and 250 points are added to the score of the winners. The differ- ence between the completed scores is the number of points of the rubber. 12. An error in the honor score may be corrected at any time before the score of the rubber has been made up and agreed upon. 13. An error in the trick score may be corrected prior to the conclusion of the game in which it oc- curred. Such game shall not be considered concluded until a bid has been made in the following game ; or, if it be the final score of the rubber, until the score has been made up and agreed upon. Cutting 14. In cutting the ace is the lowest card; "as be- tween cards of otherwise equal value, the lowest is the heart, next the diamond, next the club, and high- est the spade." Eights of Entry 119 15. Every player must cut from the same pack. 16. Should a player expose more than one card, the highest is his cut. Forming Tables 17. The prior right of playing is with those first in the room. If there be more than four candidates, the privilege of playing is decided by cutting. The four who cut the lowest cards play first. 18. After the table is formed, the players cut to decide upon partners, the lower two playing against the higher two. The lowest is the dealer who has choice of cards and seats, and who, having made his decision, must abide by it. 19. Six players constitute a complete table. 20. The right to succeed any player who may retire is acquired by announcing a desire to do so. Cutting Out 21. If at the end of a rubber, admission be claimed by one or two candidates, the player or players hav- ing played the greatest number of consecutive rub- bers shall withdraw; but when all have played the same number, they must cut to decide upon the out- goers ; the highest are out. Rights of Entry 22. A candidate desiring to enter a table must de- clare such wish before any player at the table cuts a card, for the purpose either of beginning a new rubber or of cutting out. 23. In the formation of new tables those candidates 120 The Laws of Auction Bridge who have not played at any other table have the prior right of entry. Those who have already played de- cide their right of admission by cutting. 24. When one or more players belonging to another table aid in making up a new one, the new players shall be the first to go out. 25. A player who cuts into one table, while belong- ing to another, shall forfeit his prior right of re- entry into the latter, unless he has helped to form a new table. In this event he may signify his inten- tion of returning to his original table when his place at the new one can be filled. 26. If anyone break up a table, the remaining play- ers have a prior right at other tables before him. Shuffling 27. The pack must not be shuffled below the table nor so that the face of any card may be seen. 28. The dealer's partner must collect the cards from the preceding deal and has the right to shuffle the cards first. Each player has the right to shuffle subsequently. The dealer has the right to shuffle last ; but should a card or cards be seen during the shuffling, or while giving the pack to be cut, he must reshuffle. 29. After shuffling, the cards properly collected must be placed face downward to the left of the next dealer. The Deal 30. Each player deals in his turn; the order of dealing is to the left.. 31. The player on the dealer's right cuts the pack, A New Deal 121 and in dividing it must leave not fewer than four cards in each packet; if in cutting or replacing one of the two packets, a card be exposed, or if there be any doubt or confusion as to the exact place in which the pack was divided, there must be a fresh cut. 32. When the player whose duty it is to cut has once separated the pack, he can neither reshuffle nor recut, except as provided in law 31, 33. Should the dealer shuffle the cards after the cut, the pack must be cut again. 34. The 52 cards shall be dealt face downwards. The deal is not completed until the last card has been dealt. 35. There is no penalty for a misdeal. The cards must be dealt again, A New Deal 36. There must be a new deal: (a) If the cards be not dealt into 4 packets, one at a time and in regular rotation, beginning at the dealer's left; (&) If during a deal, or during the play, the pack be proved incorrect or imperfect; (c) If any card be faced in the pack or be exposed during the deal ' on, above, or below the table ' ; (d) If any player have dealt to him a greater number of cards than 13, whether dis- covered before or during the play; (e) If the dealer deal 2 cards at once and deal a third before correcting the error; 122 The Laws of Auction Bkidge (/) If the dealer omit to have the pack cut and either adversary call attention to the fact prior to the completion of the deal and before either adversary has looked at any of his cards; (g) If the last card does not come in its regular order to the dealer. 37. Should three players have their right number of cards, the fourth, less than 13, and not discover such deficiency until he has played, the deal stands; he, not being dummy, is answerable for any established revoke he may have made, as if the missing card or cards had been in his hand. Any player may search the other pack for it or them, 38. If during or at the conclusion of the play one player be found to hold more than the proper num- ber of cards and another have an equal number less, the hand is void. 39. A player dealing out of turn or with the adver- saries cards may be corrected before the last card is dealt; otherwise the deal must stand and the game proceed as if the deal had been correct. " A player who has looked at any of his cards may not correct such deal, nor may his partner." 40. A player can neither cut, shuffle, nor deal for his partner without the permission of his adver- Declaring 41. The dealer having examined his hand must de- clare to win at least one odd trick, either with a trump suit or at notrump. Declaring 123 42. After the dealer has made his declaration, each player in turn, commencing with the player on the dealer's left has the right to pass or to make a higher declaration, or to double the last declaration made, or to redouble a declaration which has been doubled, subject to the provisions of law 52. 43. A declaration of a greater number of tricks in a suit of lower value, which equals the last declara- tion in value of points, shall be considered a higher declaration — e. g., a declaration of 3 clubs is a higher declaration than 2 royals and 4 clubs is higher than 3 hearts. 44. A player in his turn may overbid the previous declaration any number of times, and may also over- bid his partner, but he cannot overbid his own decla- ration which has been passed by the other three players. 45. When the final declaration has been made — i. e,, when the last declaration has been passed by the other three players — the player who has made such declaration (or in the case where both partners have made declarations in the same suit, or of notrump, the player who first made such declaration) shall play the combined hands of himself and of his part- ner, the latter becoming dummy. 46. When the player of the two hands (herein- after termed the declarer) wins at least as many tricks as he declared to do, he scores the full value of the tricks won (see laws 4 and 6). When he fails, his adversaries score in the honor column, 50 points for each under trick — ^i. e., each trick short of the number declared; or, if the declaration have been 124 The Laws of Auction Bridge doubled, or redoubled, 100 or 200 respectively for each such trick; neither the declarer nor his adver- saries score anything toward the game. 47. The loss on the declaration of "One spade" shall be limited to 100 points, whether doubled or not, unless redoubled. 48. If a player make a declaration (other than pass- ing) out of turn, either adversary may demand a new deal or may allow the declaration so made to stand, when the bidding shall continue as if the declaration had been in order. 49. If a player in bidding fail to declare a num- ber of tricks sufficient to overbid the previous bid, he shall be considered to have declared the requisite number of tricks in the bid which he has made, and * either adversary ' may call attention to the insuffi- cient bid ; but if either of them pass double or make a higher bid, the offence is condoned. When the in- sufficient bid is corrected to the requisite number of tricks in the bid, the partner of the declarer (in error) shall be debarred from making any further declara- tion or double. If a player make an impossible bid, it is equivalent to a bid of all the tricks, in which case neither the offending player or his partner can make any further declaration during that hand un- less either adversary double. "The opponents of the offending player may proceed with a higher bid, or may either of them demand a new deal, or they may treat the declaration as a final bid." 50. After the final declaration has been made, a player may not give his partner any information as to a previous declaration, whether made by himself or Doubling and Redoubling 125 by either adversary, but a player may inquire, at any time, what was the final declaration. Doubling and Redoubling 51. The effect of doubling and redoubling is that the value of each trick over 6 is doubled or quadrup- pled, but it does not increase the value of a declara- tion — e. g., a declaration of 2 diamonds is higher than one notrump, although the notrump declaration has been doubled. 52. Any declaration can be doubled and redoubled once, but not more; a player cannot double his part- ner's declaration, nor redouble his partner's double, but he may redouble a declaration of his partner which has been doubled by an adversary. 53. The act of doubling or redoubling reopens the bidding. "When a declaration has been doubled or redoubled, any player, including the declarer or his partner, can in his proper turn make a further decla- ration of higher value. 54. When a player whose declaration has been dou- bled makes good his declaration by winning at least the declared number of tricks, he scores a bonus which consists of 50 points in the honor column for winning the number of tricks declared, and a further 50 points for each additional trick he may win, if he or his partner have redoubled, the bonus is doubled. 55. If a player double out of turn, ' either adver- sary ' may demand a new deal. 56. When the final declaration has been made the play shall begin, and the player on the left of the declarer shall lead. 126 The Laws of Auction Bridge 57. A declaration once made cannot be altered, un- less it have been doubled or a higher declaration made. Dummy 58. As soon as the eldest hand has led, the declarer's partner shall place his cards face upward on the table, and the duty of playing the cards from that hand shall devolve upon the declarer. 59. Before placing his cards upon the table, the declarer's partner has all the rights of a player, but after so doing takes no part whatever in the play, except that he has the right : (a) To ask the declarer whether he have any of a suit which he may have renounced; (&) To call the declarer's attention to the fact that too many or too few cards have been played to a trick ; (c) To correct the claim of either adversary to a penalty to which the latter is not en- titled ; (d) To call attention to the fact that a trick has been erroneously taken by either side; (e) To participate in the discussion of any disputed question of fact after it has arisen between the declarer and either adversary ; (/) To correct an erroneous score. 60. Should the declarer's partner call attention to any other incident of the play in consequence of Cabds Exposed Before Play 127 which any penalty might have been exacted, the de- clarer is precluded from exacting such penalty. 61. If the declarer's partner, by touching a card or otherwise, suggest a play of a card from dummy, either adversary may, without consultation, call upon the declarer to play or not to play the card sug- gested. 62. Dummy is not liable to the penalty for a re- voke; if he revoke and the error be not discovered until the trick is turned and quitted, the trick must stand, 63. A card from the declarer's own hand is not played until actually quitted; "but should he name or touch a card in the dummy, such card is considered as played, unless he, in touching the card, say, 'I arrange, ' or words to that effect. If he simultaneously touch two or more cards, he may elect which one to play." Cards Exposed Before Play 64. If before the cards have been dealt, and before the trump declaration has been finally determined, any player expose a card from his hand, ' either ad- versary ' may demand a new deal. If the deal be allowed to stand, the exposed card may be taken up and cannot be called, " If any player lead before the final declaration has been determined, the partner of the offending player may not make any further bid during that hand, and the declarer may call a lead from the adversary whose turn it is to lead." 65. If after the final declaration has been accepted and before a card is led, the partner of the player 128 The Laws of Auction Bkidgb who has to lead to the first trick, expose a card from his hand, the declarer may, instead of calling the card, require the leader not to lead the suit of the exposed card ; if so exposed by the leader it is subject to call. Cards Exposed During Play 66. All cards exposed after the original lead by the declarer's adversaries are liable to be called, and such cards must be left face upward upon the table. 67. The following are exposed cards: (a) Two or more cards played at once; (6) Any card dropped with its face upward on the table, even though snatched up so quickly that it cannot be named; (c) "Any card so held by a player that his partner sees any portion of its face"; (d) "Any card mentioned by either adversary as being held by him or his partner." 68. A card dropped on the floor or elsewhere be- low the table or so held that an adversary but not the partner sees it, is not an exposed card. 69. If two or more cards be played at once by either of the declarer's adversaries, the declarer shall have the right to call anyone of such cards to the current trick, and the other card or cards are exposed. 70. If without waiting for his partner to play, either of the declarer's adversaries play on the table the best card or lead one which is a winning card, as against the declarer and dummy, and continue (without waiting for his partner to play) to lead several such cards, the declarer may demand that the Leads Out of Turn 129 partner of the player in fault win, if he can, the first or any other of these tricks, and the other cards thus improperly played are exposed cards. 71. If either or both of the declarer's adversaries throw his or their cards on the table face upwards, such cards are exposed and are liable to be called (but if he places his packet on the table with only the top card exposed, only the visible card is ex- posed) ; but if either adversary retain his hand he cannot be forced to abandon it. Cards exposed by the declarer are not liable to be called. If the de- clarer say, "I have the rest," or any other words indicating that the remaining tricks or any number of them are his, he may be required to place his cards face upward on the table. ' His adversaries are not liable to have any of their cards called should they thereupon expose them.' 72. If a player who has rendered himself liable to have the highest or lowest of a suit called (Laws 79, 85, 92) fail to play as directed or if, when called on to lead one suit he lead another, having in his hand one or more of the suit demanded (Laws 73 and 93) or if called upon to win or lose a trick fail to do so when he can (Laws 70, 79, 92), he is liable to the penalty for a revoke, unless such play be corrected before the trick is turned and quitted. Leads Out of Turn 73. If either of the declarer's adversaries lead out of turn the declarer may either treat the card so lead as an exposed card or may call a suit as soon as it is the turn of either adversary to lead. 130 The Laws of Auction Beidge 74. If the declarer lead out of turn, either from his own hand or dummy, he incures no penalty ; but may not rectify the error after the second hand has played. 75. If any player lead out of turn and the other three follow, the trick is complete and the error can- not be rectified; but if only the second, or second and third play to the false lead, their cards may be taken back ; there is no penalty against any one except the original offender, and then only when he is one of the declarer's adversaries as specified in Law 73. 76. A player cannot be compelled to play a card which would oblige him to revoke. 77. The call of an exposed card may be repeated until such card has been played, 78. If a player called upon to play a suit have none of it, the penalty is paid. Cards Played in Error 79. Should the fourth hand, not being dummy or declarer, play before the second, the latter may be called upon "to play his highest or lowest card of the suit played, " or to win or lose the trick. 80. If any one, not being dummy, omit playing to a trick and such error be not corrected before he has played to the next, the adversaries or either of them may claim a new deal; should they decide that such deal is to stand, the surplus card at the end of the hand is considered to have been played to the imperfect trick, but does not constitute a revoke therein. 81. If any one, except dummy, play two or more cards to the same trick and the mistake be not cor- The Revoke 131 rected, he is answerable for any consequent revokes he may have made. If during the play the error be detected, the tricks may be counted face downward to see if any trick contain more than four cards; should this be the case, the trick which contains a surplus card or cards may be examined and the card or cards restored to the original holder, and he (not being dummy) shall be liable for any revoke he may meanwhile have made. The Revoke 82. A revoke occurs when a player, other than dummy, holding one or more cards of the suit led, plays a card of a diff:erent suit. It becomes an es- tablished revoke if the trick in which it occurs be turned and quitted (i. e., the hand removed from the trick after it has been turned face downward on the table) ; or if either the revoking player or his partner, whether in turn or otherwise, lead or play to the following trick. 83. The penalty for each established revoke shall be : (a) "When the declarer revokes his adversaries add 150 points to their score in the honor column, in addition to any penalty which he may have incurred for not making good his declaration"; (&) "If either of the adversaries revoke the declarer may either add 150 points to his score in the honor column or may take three tricks from his opponents and add them to his own. Such tricks may 132 The Laws of Auction Bridge assist the declarer to make good his de- claration, but shall not entitle him to score any bonus in the honor column, in the case of the declaration having been doubled or redoubled"; (c) "When more than one revoke is made dur- ing the play of the hand, the penalty for each revoke after the first shall be 100 points in the honor column." A revoking side cannot score, except for honors, aces or chicane. 84. A player may ask his partner if he have a card of the suit which he has renounced; should the question be asked before the trick is turned and quitted, subsequent turning and quitting does not establish a revoke, and the error may be corrected unless the question be answered in the negative, or unless the revoking player or his partner have led or played to the following trick. 85. If a player correct his mistake in time to save a revoke, any player or players who have followed him may withdraw their cards and substitute others, and the cards so withdrawn are not exposed. If the player in fault be one of the declarer's adversaries, the card played in error is exposed and the declarer may call it whenever he pleases; or he may require the offender to play his highest or lowest card of the suit to the trick, but this penalty cannot be exacted from the declarer. 86. At the end of a hand the claimants of a revoke may search all the tricks. If the cards have been mixed the claim may be argued and proved if possi- General Rules 133 ble ; but no proof is necessary and the claim is estab- lished if, after it has been made, the accused player or his partner mix the cards before they have been sufficiently examined by the adversaries. 87. A revoke must be claimed before the cards have been cut for the following deal. 88. Should both sides revoke, the only score per- mitted shall be for honors, or aces, or chicane. If one side revoke more than once, the penalty of 100 points for each extra revoke shall then be scored by the other side. General Eules 89. There must not be any consultation between partners as to the enforcement of penalties. If they do so consult, the penalty is paid. 90. Once a trick is complete, turned and quitted, it must not be looked at (except under Law 81) until the end of the hand. 91. Any player during the play of a trick or after the four cards are played and before they are touched for the purpose of gathering them together, may de- mand that the cards be placed before their respective players. 92. If either of the declarer's adversaries, prior to to his partner playing, call attention to the trick, either by saying that it is his or without being re- quested so to do by naming his card or drawing it toward him, the declarer may require such partner to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led, or to win or lose the trick. 93. "Either of the declarer's adversaries may call 134 The Laws of Auction Bkidge his partner's attention to the fact, that he is about to play or lead out of turn; but if, during the play of a hand, he make any unauthorized reference to any incident of the play or of any bid previously made, the declarer may call a suit from the adversary whose turn it is next to lead." 94. In all cases where a penalty has been incurred, the offender is bound to give reasonable time for the decision of his adversaries; but if a wrong penalty be demanded none can be enforced. 95. Where the declarer or his partner has incurred a penalty, one of his adversaries may say : ' ' Partner, will you exact the penalty or shall I?" But whether this is said or not, if either adversary name the pen- alty his decision is final. New Cards 96. Unless a pack be imperfect, no player shall have the right to call for one new pack. If fresh cards be demanded, two packs must be furnished. If they be produced during a rubber, the adversaries shall have the choice of the new cards. If it be the beginning of a new rubber, the dealer, whether he or one of his adversaries be the party calling for the new cards, shall have the choice. New cards must be called for before the pack is cut for a new deal. 97. A card or cards torn or marked must be re- placed by agreement or new cards furnished. Bystanders 98. While a bystander, by agreement among the players, may decide any question, he must on no ac- Bystanders 135 count say anything unless appealed to; and if he make any remark which calls attention to an over- sight affecting the score, or the exaction of a penalty, he is liable to be called upon by the players to pay the stakes ("not extras"), lost. ETIQUETTE OF AUCTION BRIDGE In Bridge slight intimations convey much informa- tion. A code is compiled for the purpose of succinctly stating laws and for fixing penalties for an offence. To offend against a rule of etiquette is far more se- rious than to offend against a law; for while in the latter case the offender is subject to the prescribed penalties, in the former his adversaries have no redress. 1. "Declarations should be made in a simple man- ner, thus — One Heart, One Notrump, or, I pass (No), or, I double— and must be made orally and not by gesture. ' ' 2. Aside from his legitimate declaration, a player should not give any indication by word or gesture as to the nature of his hand, or as to his pleasure or dis- pleasure at a play, a bid or a double. 3. If a player demand that the cards be placed, he should do so for his own information and not to call his partner's attention to any card or play. 4. No player, other than the declarer, should lead until the previous trick is turned and quitted; nor, after having led a winning card, should he draw an- other from his hand before his partner has played to the current trick. 5. "A player should not play a card with such em- phasis as to draw attention to it." Nor should he detach one card from his hand and subsequently play another. Portland Club Laws 137 6. A player should not purposely incur a penalty because he is willing to pay it, nor should he make a second revoke to conceal the first. 7. "Players should avoid discussion and refrain from talk during the play, as it may be annoying to players at the table or to those at other tables in the room." 8. "The dummy should not leave his seat for the purpose of watching his partner's play, neither should he call attention to the score, nor to any card or cards that he or the other players hold, nor to any bid previously made. ' ' 9. "If the declarer say, 'I have the rest,' or any words indicating that the remaining tricks are his, and one or both of the other players should expose his or their cards, or request the declarer to play out his hand, he should not allow any information so obtained to influence his play nor take any finesse not an- nounced by him at the time of making such claim, • unless it had been previously proved to be a winner. ' ' 10. " If a player concede in error one or more tricks, the concession should stand." 11. "A player having been cut out of one table should not seek admission into another unless willing to cut for the privilege of entry." 12. "No player shall look at any of his cards until the deal is completed." Portland Club Laws The words between quotation marks are not in the Portland Club Laws. The rest is mainly verbatim. The important difference is the penalty for a revoke. 138 Laws op Three -Handed Auction By the Portland Club Laws each revoke of the de- clarer counts 150 points in the honor column. If either adversary revoke, the declarer has the option of taking 150 points in the honor column for each revoke, or of taking three tricks from the opponents and adding them to his own. If there are two or .more revokes, he may choose separately for each re- voke — e. g., taking 150 points for the first and three tricks for the next. Also, where an adversary of the declarer leads and after the others have played plays again it is a lead out of turn, if he have not taken the trick. Also, it is the custom at the Portland Club, if the declarer throw down two cards at the end thinking that he must lose them, when in fact one of them must win, to allow him that trick. If the declarer call a wrong card as exposed by an adversary he is liable to have a suit called when first he or his partner have the lead. The left hand adversary may demand a new deal under laws 49, 55, 64, Laws of Three-Handed Auction The foregoing laws apply, except the game is played by three players, four make the table complete. Each player bids on his own account. If a player bids out of turn he forfeit 50 points to each of the others, but the right to declare remains with the proper player. The player making the final declaration plays that hand against the other two. If after the deal is completed and before a card is led, either adversary of the declarer expose a card from his hand he shall forfeit 100 points to each of the other players, and the declarer may call upon the eldest hand not to Laws of Three-Handed Auction 139 lead that suit; the card is also an exposed card. If a player double out of turn he forfeits 100 points to each of his adversaries, and the player whose de- claration has been doubled shall have the right to say whether the double shall stand. The bidding is then resumed ; but if the double has been disallowed, the said declaration cannot be doubled by the player on the right of the offender. "When two games have been won by the same player, he wins the rubber. When the declarer makes good his declaration, he scores as at auction; when he fails to do so, he loses to each of his adversaries. Honors are scored by each player severally — i. e., for one heart he scores 8; for two, 16, etc., and in a notrump for each ace 10, with the same score as auction for 4 in one hand, etc. ; 100 points are scored by each player for every game he wins. Also the winner of the rubber adds 250 to his score. At the end of the rubber the sep- arate scores are added and each player wins from or loses to each other player the difference between his score and that of the said other player. In order to make this game a success the restric- tion should be adopted that no player shall make his first bid a notrump without an ace and a king in his hand, or two kings and a queen. Otherwise the game becomes a scramble for the dummy and the first bidder bids notrump on nothing. Adopting this restriction, if the first bidder bids notrump and the second bidder makes a bid, the third player has an actual chance of a winning partnership and rash bids are dangerous. LAWS OF BRIDGE The foregoing are the Bridge laws verbatim, except where they name the laws specially applicable to auction. In place of these latter the laws are as fol- lows: Each trick above 6 counts spades, 2; clubs, 4; diamonds, 6; hearts, 8; notrump, 12. (11) 100 points are added to the score of the winners (41-50, sub- stitute). The dealer may either make the trump or pass the declaration to his partner. If the dealer's partner make the trump without receiving permission from the dealer, either adversary may demand that the trump shall stand or that there shall be a new deal, provided that no declaration as to doubling has been made. Should the dealer's partner pass the dec- laration to the dealer, either adversary may claim a new deal or compel the offending player to declare the trump. If either of the dealer's adversaries make a declaration, the dealer may either claim a new deal or proceed as if no declaration had been made. Doubling 51-57, Substitute. — The effect of doub- ling, redoubling, and so on, is that the value of each trick above 6, is doubled, quadrupled, and so on. The eldest hand has the first right. If he do not double, he asks his partner "May I lead?" His partner must answer, Yes, or, I double. After a double, the de- clarer has the first right to redouble. If he say, no, his partner may redouble. The right to double again is first with the original doubler, and on his pass with Laws of Bkidge 141 his partner. Thus the doubling may continue until the value of each trick above 6 exceeds 100 points when there shall be no further doubling, if any player objects. If the right hand adversary of the doubler double before his partner has asked "May I lead?" the declarer has the right to say whether the double shall stand. If any player redouble out of turn, the last doubler shall decide whether or not the double shall stand. If the eldest hand lead before the doub- ling be completed, his partner may redouble only with the consent of the last doubler. If the eldest hand lead without asking permission, his partner may only double by consent of the maker ; but if the right hand adversary of the dealer say, "May I play?" his partner does not lose his right to double ; and if this adversary lead out of turn, the maker may call a suit from the eldest hand who may only double if the maker consent. But there is no penalty here if any part of the dummy hand have been placed on the table. When the question "May I lead?" has been answered in the affirmative, or when the doubling has ceased, the eldest hand leads. (64) As above, except that the exposed card remains exposed. (65) If after the deal has been completed and before a card is led, any player exposed a card, his partner shall forfeit any right to double or redouble, and if the offender be the leader's partner, the dealer may require the leader not to lead that suit and the card remains exposed. (85) The penalty of each revoke is three tricks taken from the revoking player and added to those of the adversaries, and that the revoking side cannot attain a higher score in that hand than 28, 142 Laws of Bridge nor score any slam. (The Portland Club rule is that the adversaries, after consultation, may either take three tricks or deduct the value of three tricks from the revoker's score, or add the value of three tricks to their own score so that at notrump they can go out and the side revoking cannot attain a higher score toward the game than 28.) Bridge Declarations A queen above the average is the bridge rule for notrump ; or 2 aces and a protected suit or 3 aces ; or a solid suit and outside ace. The foregoing analysis applies to many notrumps with the exception that hands with missing suits are much more dangerous at bridge. Call any good heart make instead of a doubtful notrump. Call any suit to the score. When the dealer has passed the dummy is called on to be cautious. Here many good players adopt the rule of not passing a trickless hand. Any good auction player will have no difficulty in declaring at bridge with the aid of the analysis which has been given for the auction bids. If the third hand doubles, lead your best heart. LAWS AND PENALTIES "A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigor of the game." Some time ago my opinion was asked as to the rights of the dummy in the fol- lowing case: A very well known American player playing at bridge in a well-known for- eign club — not the Portland — and with gentle- men of unquestionable fairness and integrity, had wagered one monkey extra. Upon the last game of the rubber, his partner was playing the dummy and the adversary with whom he had made the wager revoked. After a trick, the dealer noticed the play of a card which proved the revoke and the adversary said: Yes, I re- voked all right. Thereupon the dealer said: Well, I will not claim it. This revoke, if claimed, would have won the rubber for the dealer, which was now lost. No doubt is felt but that, if the dummy had objected, the ad- versary would have conceded the rubber, but the visitor did not think that he should raise the question there. I was asked whether, as representing a card committee, I would decide that the player of the dummy could not waive a conceded revoke. It seems evident that the dummy player was influenced by the feeling 144 Laws and Penalties that the Portland Club penalty is too severe, but playing the game, it was his plain duty to enforce the penalty. Penalties are not made for the purpose of punishing unfair play. It is always assumed that the players intend to play the game according to the spirit of the laws. Thus supposing that at notrump you are leading off a great suit from the dummy which is in fact a solid suit if I play to it the third time, but if I revoke I will block the suit and save the game, it would be cheating for me to do this purposely. The declarer has the right in this position to require that the card shall be played. It might have been well for the laws to have said this directly. It would be pos- sible to make laws which would be much more concise than the foregoing laws. The advan- tage of these laws, and a great advantage, is that they follow the old whist laws and use the same language so far as is practicable. There- fore they apply to a great number of questions which have been the subject of controversy, as anyone will see by looking at Drayson's De- cisions, and their meaning has become settled and well known. And it is the settled principle under these laws that no one has a right to buy a penalty; that is, to deliberately take the risk of having to pay it. Considering now the laws which are in the nature of penalties, the rea- Laws and Penalties 145 sons are obvious for the laws for a new deal 36-40; for these define what a deal is. But after a correct deal, either adversary, according to the American laws, but only the adversary on the left in the Portland Club laws, may de- mand a new deal ; for a declaration out of turn, other than passing, 48; doubling out of turn, 55 ; for exposing a card before the final bid, 64. Also by the American law for an impossible declaration, 49. Read this rule carefully, as well as the rules for exposed cards; cards played out of turn, or in error. These penalties are like the hazards at golf; they are part of the game and it is unsportsmanlike not to look out for them and to insist upon the rigor of them. Particularly is this so of the revoke pen- alty. " The conversation of the game and its intellectual status is impaired," if a player, who is able to follow suit, fails to do so. This fail- ure causes the players to count the other hands incorrectly ; to play differently from what they would if the revoke had not been made. There- fore the player is encouraged to be alert to watch the subsequent play and to discover any revoke that has been made, and a severe pen- alty is necessary. The good player is strict in the enforcement of penalties, but is careful not to make any mistake here. If he claims a wrong penalty, or if his partner, when not entitled 146 Laws and Penalties to call the penalty, suggests it in any way, the penalty cannot be enforced. Bead law 93 carefully. This law is not in the Portland Club laws and allows you to call your partner's attention to the fact that he is about to play or lead out of turn, but permits the declarer to call a suit for any unauthorized reference to any incident of the play. Be very careful about the revoke penalty. If your part- ner renounces, be sure to ask him; and do not say — None ? — but say — Have — you — no — heart? And when he asks you this, do not say — no — but say — I will look. And look through all your cards before you say — NO. The importance of this rule is great; for when a player revokes his attention is on something else, and often it is necessary that his attention shall be directed to this question. Therefore if you make it your rule, when you hear the question, to look back to your hand, you will save the revoke, and your partner will look upon you as a careful player, knowing that all players revoke at times but that careless players maintain their revoke even after they have been asked. Lastly, in the case of the dummy, it is greater carelessness for him not to ask the declarer than it is for the de- clarer to revoke. JUN 7 1912