Evening Star Newspaper, October 12, 1930, Page 103

ANY players seem to believe that it is wrong ever to bid after partner has made a business double. It is not unusual to hear one of average ability say: “Never take out my doubles unless you know they are informatory doubles.” To have that attitude is to lack a true coneeption of the underlying principles of all bidding. Whenever you make any declaration— bid, pass, double or redouble—your partner must consider that you are giv- ing information about your hand. With the benefit of that information you study your own hand and calculate what you deem is the best action on behalf of the side. If your hand is such that your side will be best served by letting a business double stay in—as is usually the case—then by all means pass. But if your hand is one with which the side probably will benefit more from your bidding than your passing, then by all means bid. Two striking instances of the latter have just come to hand from interested correspondents. Both were in auction games. In the first South bid a club, West a spade, North two clubs, East two hearts. South went to three clubs, West and North passed and East called three hearts, which South doubled. The ques- tion now is what North should do, after West passed, with this hand: e vsss ®72 HAIBE53 Most emphatically he should bid four ‘clubs. His hand is much better at clubs than his single raise indicated, but is much worse on the defense than his partner has a right to believe. It is practically certain that no club tricks can be taken by the defense; with so many of the 13 clubs located, the foe can almost surely ruff the first round. And North’s hand is worthless in the other suits. His pass of the double would be considered almost bridge treason among good players. ; The other case, involving one of the freakiest hands seen in many a day, is reported by Buell W. Hudson, prominent as a newspaper publisher and advertis- ing man in Woonsocket, R, I. He sat South in a game with other prominent citizens, his partner being Dr. E. D. Clarke; West, W. N. Foss, and East, J. W. Nichols. Here is what caused the excite- ment: & 985432 v o - ¢ 73 & K65 & None ¥ QJ10853 ¢ AJ10843 a3 & AKQ1076¢ ¥ None & None & AQJI0987 i i six trumps, two doubletons and his king. Where East and West fell down, of course, was in allowing the redouble to stand. The hands were freaks, and my THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, . €, OCTOBER T2, 1030 # /uE BrRIDGE FOoruM * Business Doubles Should Be ““Taken Out” by a Partner Whose Hand Justifies It. By Shepard Barclay. Drawn for The Star's Sunday Magazine by P. Strothmana. To the Devil. “So this is Hades?—well, at last I'm here To pay for all the rotten things I did, My ever-growing meanness year by year In raising ructions after every bid. But what the heck are all these tables for, And packs of cards all ready for the cut, * And players set and eager for the war? . This can’t be Hades to a bridge-mad nut. You say they sent me here because I sinned? Just where do you get off to call this Heck?” The devil wagged his fiendish tail and grinned, “Because there are no aces in the deck.” One freakish thing is that neither side bid the second suit of its two-suiter. We must take issue with Mr. Hudson’s assertion when he says: “My friends who play contract—I do not—are at complete odds regarding the correct contract bid- ding, but have not refuted my claim that, in any event, 2 grand slam is un- Hkely at contract.” Users of any form of absolute forcing bids combined with “feature showing” or ‘“cue bidding” would surely get to the grand slam. North would have to keep the bidding open for South to show both his suits, would next have to disclose his pref- erence for spades, and then, after South showed his ace of clubs by bid- ding that suit again, North would show the king of clubs by rebidding clubs, whereat South would call seven spades. Slowly Improving. “¥You would have congratulated me on my progress if you had seen me last night,” said a beginner friend to Stan- ley Wolfe the other day. *“I only re- voked twice.” A Law a Week. A double of partner’s bid or a redouble of partner’s double—Such a declaration is void, and the opponents may add 50 points to their honor score. (Next week a double or redouble when it is partner’s turn to declare.) Bridge Intimacies. Auction Problems. The 2 of hearts having been led at no trump, -how would you plan the play of the following hands? DUMMY 4Q85 WYATE 983 AAQ4e3 8343 WYES5 QAKS QKJI53 It is plain to declarer that he can take four club tricks, two diamonds and two hearts—eight tricks. An extra trick in any of those suits is an impossibility. His only chance for game, therefore,*is to get a trick in spades. Hence, his every effort should be to get a spade trick. When the two offensive hands both possess at least three cards of a suit, one hand containing the jack and the other the queen, a trick is absolutely certain if the opponents lead the suit, but by no means certain if declarer leads it from either. hand. That is a point that should ever be remembered, not only in no trump play but in the play of side suits in a trump contract. Do not lead such a suit, with a jack in one hand and queen in the other, both of them twice guarded, if it is at all possible to get opponents to lead it. To take this case, suppose one op- ponent has the ace of spades and the other has the king. If declarer leads from his own hand the first adversary will play low, dummy’s queen goes on the trick and the right-hand foe takes it with the king. Now the latter can lead a small spade, declarer plays the jack and the left-hand opponent gets it with by his lead of the deuce, may shift im- mediately to spades, and the game is won. If he leads another heart, the best thing after taking the trick is to lead a little diamond and let the opponents win it, hoping they will shift to spades. If they do not the only remaining chance is to lead spades yourself at the end of the hand and hope for the best. Contract Systems. In a passing goulash how does the bid- ding plfler from that ¢f a regular deal? Each player, of course, knows what are some of the cards his partner holds. Thus it has become customary for the first bidder of a side to include in his estimate of the side’s strength those cards which he passed to his partner and to bid as if they were still in his own hand. The partner in turn must not raise or take out except on addi« tional strength about which his mate does not know. Otherwise both partners will be bidding the same cards twice to a certain extent and will wind up with a higher bid than they should. To make this clear, suppose that after the passing has been completed your hand is thus: AAKQI542 WAK1087 ¢2 & Nomg and you know your partner holds the ace of diamonds, you may include that card in your bid just as if you held it instead of the deuce. When it comes his turn to bid he should know you have in- cluded it and should raise only Qm' strength you do not know he possessea. Another factor that should be con« sidered is the likelihood that the op-= ponents in their passing have built up just as freakish distributions as you, It is probable that the six outstanding spades are all in one hand. If this be the hand at your left you can take only, four spade tricks, unless you manage to use little trumps for ruffing the early rounds of a suit on which your left= hand foe has to follow suit. Likewise, your five hearts may be worth only two tricks. Counting your spades worth only, four certain tricks, your hearts worth two and your partner’s ace of diamonds worth one, your bid may be based on a count of seven tricks, or possibly scaled up to a count of eight. In an ordinary deal you would rate this hand as probably worth 11 tricks because of the likely normal distribution of hostile cards, but nothing is normal in any goulash, least of all in a passing goulash, How much high-card strength 1s re« quired for a minimum bid in a regular goulash, and how many trumps do you need to consider them normal support for partner’s suit bid? 5 The New Problem. - ‘The king of clubs having been led and won by your ace, after which two rounds ‘of trumps were played (spades), on the second of which the original leader falled to follow suit, how would -you plan the balance of the following hand? DUMMY &S . PAEKQ ¢AKQS874 H868 DECLARER &AKQ10862 9632 o6 SHAY Hog Cholera EpidemicFeared farm incomes have caused many farmers to leé the immunization work go. Poor crops and lack of water and other com B3z fitit