Evening Star Newspaper, December 15, 1929, Page 105

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 15, 1929. 5 = ———_ Expert Gives Tips on Good Bridge Playing Wilbur C. Whitehead, Bridge Monarch and Chairman of the National Contract Bridge Committee, Gives Many Valuable Pointers in This Article and Tells How the Game Should Be Played. BY WILBUR C. WHITEHEAD. HAT spbtle “feel of the table,” which is almost occult in its gift for divina- tion and which the bridge genius pos- sesses to & marked degree, putting him in a class almost above and be- yond rules, is here described by no less a person than Wilbur C. head, bridge monarch, himself adept in ' marked intuitive sensing of a fortuitous situation. Mr. Whifehead, ‘who is chairman of the na- tional contract bridge committee, says of this auspicious possessjon, which thousands of bridge addicts would o ge their homes to possess: “The in les that are subconsciously sensed by the expert player are what is popu- larly known'as ‘the feel of the table.’” He fur- ther elucidates: “Ask any expert what he would . do with a particular hand in any close bidding or playing-situation, and he will tell you that what he would do would depend on ‘the feel of the table!t" 5 The metropolitan bridge czar, to whom teach- ers of the game from all over the country come to turn disciples, told not only of the techrique of the bridge genius, but also of the faulty playing of the duffer bridge player; his first cousin, the moron player; those twin pests, the cocky overbidder and the timorous underbidder, and how to cure them in the event that they cannot be avoided. You have probably spent many an evening across the table from a part- ner who consistently bought the bid regardless of the price or, perhaps worse yet, a partner who wouldn’t make a bid even though his hand contained half the honors in the deck. If you are married—or engaged—to one of these types, you cannot, of course, escape throwing in your lot with him or her, as the case might be, and in such circumstances the only thing to do is to turn doctor. “IN auction bridge, as in many other mala- dies, like cures like,” reminds Mr. White= head. “If confronted with an overbidder, you cannot cure this trait by underbidding. The only way to bring such a partner to normal is to overbid yourself. If faced with an under- bidder, the only cure is to underbid yourself.” Besides giving many valuable pointers on bridge in general, Mr. Whitehead made an announcement which will bring rejoicing to novice and expert alike, and that is that the single standard for players is now about ready to be established and forever intrenched in the bridge world. So not only is the modern world to see a single standard of morals, but, if the advocates of this code and their optimism are to be be- lieved, one of bridge as well! Mr. Whitechead generously scattered all these If one's lady opponent is prattling about Paris fashions or the latest Broadway hit, poise and concentration are necessary to forthcoming pearls of bridge wisdom during an interview in his studios, on Park avenue and Fifty-sixth street, New York City, two floors of beautifully decorated rooms, done in soft greens and tans, colors eminently suited to flustered bridge students whose keyed-up nerves might be set on edge by harsh and striking hues. Doubtless, those who have never had the pleas- ure of meeting the man whose name is known around the world in households where bridge is the favorite pastime conjecture about his personality. What qualities does a man possess to make him one of the outstanding leaders of the Nation's caravan of bridge enthusiasts? they ask each other. Why do experts and bridge teachers from every city in the Union make pilgrimages to him in order to learn more about the great national indoor sport? What type of man, in short, is Wilbur C. Whitehead? Mr. Whitehead is a serene, unflustered. per- son with a detached calm and poise which one cannot imagine as anything but unshakable. His power of concentration is marked, his way of thinking deliberate and his choice of words selected with a fine sense of exactitude and pre- cision. While talking of bridge several tele- phones at his elbow buzzed incessantly. Mr. Whitehead calmly answered them, but never for one instant did he lose the trend of his thoughts. In fact, he talked on tranquilly about bridge, paused just long enough to re- spond to his telephone caller and then went right on with what he was saying, the sequence of his conversation remaining undisturbed. This surely must be a significant sign to any one who is distracted by the buzz-buzz-buzz of irrelevant conversation around his own bridge table and who is liable to trump his partner’s ace because the lady opponent at his left is prattling about the latest Broadway hit. In fact, nothing dismays Mr. Whitehead. He is a genial and kindly man, and though he is recognized as a bridge king, there is no pomp or ceremony about the court he holds. Callers dropped in, chatted a bit and went their way, but the bridge expert would pick up the threads of his discourse where it had momentarily been dropped and go on blithely with what he had been saying. IMPORTANT. too, is this fact—at any rate, so far as the social amenities of the game are concerned: Mr. Whitehead has a nicely balanced sense of humor, something which can be said of few bridge players. His wit is dry and just a little bit tinged with irony. He has enthusiasm and a gift for friendship. His is an altogether charming personality. So much for the bridge potentate himself. “in the early books of the game, with par- ticular reference to those published in England, and in many of the very early text books in America, it was customary with these writers play auction defily. Wilbur C. W hitehead, chairman of the National Contract Bridge Committee. to advocate slightly higher bidding require- ments for the novice than for the expert, on the ground that the novice could not be ex- pected to make the number of tricks intrinsi- cally in the two hands of declarer and dummy that would be made by the expert,” began Mr. Whitehead. “However theoretically sound this double standard might be, the result of such teaching proved impracticable, as it not only set a double standard for bidding requirements, but for mentality as well. “Moreover, this double standard assumed that the partner of the novice or the moron player who could never develop must also be of the same type and thus one not qualified to handle bids based upon expert standards. A novice of good mentality would naturally resent being coddled for long with kindergarten rules, and hence no player of any mentality subscribed to such rules, even though relatively weak in the department of play. This is as it should be. Every player, regardless of his or her ability to obtain the most from their cards, should al- ways strive to improve their game, and the best way to improve it is to set standard tests, mot only in the bidding, but in the play, otherwise such players will always remain duffers. “If confronted with an overbidder, the onmly way to bring such partner to normal is to over- bid yourself. If you underbid—that is, refuse to accord a partner who habitually overbids the full quantity of your assistance—such a player will continue to overbid, always counting upon the possibility of more tricks in your hand than shown; whereas if you will deliberately overbid yourself to satisfy the overbidding partner that you can be relied upon to bid the last oumce in your cards, your partner will stop his over- bidding at once. < “If faced with an underbidder, the only cure is to underbid yourself, because if you overbid your own cards the underbidder will continue to permit you to do so. This necessarily resulis in many unjustifiable losses, as the underbidder will not always hold the excess values which you assume will be held. Consequently, to stop such nonsense you should consistently refuse to bid more than your cards are worth, and at times you should refuse to bid as much as they are worth to force the underbidder to the proper initiative with his or her cards. “Underbidding is losing auction. Overbid- ding, within reason, is winning auction. Thus the expert’s standard is the basis of winning auction and a novice's standard the basis of losing auction. “From the very inception of my connection with the destinies of both auction and contract bridge, I have consistently advocated a single standard, one to be followed not only by experts but by the beginner as well. If the novice can- not make the total trick possibilities of the hand then there exists for such player the necessity to strive for improvement. “As is well known, we have one official code of laws of the game. Also, this code is changed only at long intervals. Nothing would be more deplorable than two conflicting codes. Also, nothing is so deplorable as two conflicting bid- ding standards. We are now progressing toward a standardization of contract bidding require- Continued on Thirteenth Page