Evening Star Newspaper, October 26, 1930, Page 99

) e S SRS THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER 26, 1930. 7 & 7uE BripGE Forum * Discarding an Ace to Assure One More Trick Gives a Rare Thrill. By Shepard Barclay. AVE you ever had the thrill of deliberately thrcwing away an ace and thereby managing to make an otherwise im- possible trick? If not, you have a new kind of experience ahead of you, with peculiar delight that may transcend the fun of making a grand slam. A hand with such a play in it came up the other day, with four astute contrac- tors on the job. The cards were dis- tributed thus: < AQJB6S YA2 ®AQJI109 h»Q #100752 prpeah AK4 v9o WKG548 ¢ 7542 oK &A92 &HJ10754 aA vQJ1087 ¢863 S K863 Mrs. Bertha D. Wright, one of the most capable players and teachers in the East, held the South hand as dealer and opened with one heart. ‘To her partner’s three diamonds she responded with three no trumps, which became the contract." If her partner had said two spades she would have bid two no trumps, the three diamonds and she three no trumps. West’s lead of the 5 of spades caused East’s king to fall under the singleton ace. Mrs. Wright now let the queen of hearts ride through to the king, East re-’ turning the 5 of clubs, which West cap- . tured with the ace. ‘Now came the crucial trick. When_ West returned the 9 of clubs Mrs. Wright took careful account of her situation. If she made the natural discard of a spade from dummy she could not run the now established hearts in her own hand, for on the first of them dummy would take the lead with the ace and she could never get back into her hand. 1f she tried the diamond finesse and it failed the foe would get that diamond trick and a spade trick, too, at the end. " By discarding the ace of hearts on this elub trick, however, she would be enabled to run her four established hearts, dis- carding three diamonds and a spade from dummy, then enter the dummy by meszns of the ace and cash the two good spades. That is exactly what she did, so that she lost only one more trick, the finale spade, instead of the two tricks which would have flown had she not discarded the heart ace. Bridge Intimacies. Nathan Ke'ley, one of Boston’s lead- ing players, is still laughing over what occurred at oms table during a recent championship cournament His partner was the illustricus Sidney S. Lenz, who keeps his bridge trophies in two moving vans and a warehouse. Two young players were consoling each other over a bad licking they had just taken at the previous table when Mr. Kelley heard one of them say: “Oh, we’ll get it all back now from these fellows.” “Don’t be too sure,” counseied his part- ner. “That man is Nate Kelley, one of the greatest players in Boston, but maybe his partner isn’t much good.” Kelley, overhearing the colloquy, took great glee in introducing the great Lenz to the youths, who thereupon became too befuddled to know what they were about. When Lenz looked at his hand he was tempted under the circumstances to make a dealer’s bid of one heart on a hand he would ordinarily pass in con- tract, eontaining five hearts to the king- queen and a side ace of clubs. The rattled opponent on his left, however, bea? lza to it wi.h an out-of-turn bid of two nearts. Kelley, not realizing the bid was out of turn, passed, which legalized the bid. The opener’s partner bravely took the bid to three hearts, which Lenz in high ecstasy passed, hoping to get a chance to double a four bid. Imagine his conster- nation when the call was six hearts. This he, of course, doubled, causing the de- Dragwn for The Star's Sunday Magazine by F. Strothmann. clarer to exclaim: “If it were not for your reputation I would redouble.” The epitaph inscribed on the tomb- stone of this hand reads: “Down three, vulnerable, doubled, score 1,000 minus, though six no trumps could have been made easily.” A Law a Week. OUBLING or redoubling and naming a bid which is not the one that can be legally doubled or redoubled. A player is not required to name the bid he is doubling or redoubling, but if he do so and name any bid other than the correct one, his declaration is void; he must declare again and his partner is barred from further participation in the auction. (Next week—What occurs if dummy warns declarer he is about to lead from the wrong hand or suggests a lead or play ‘by word or otherwise?) The Fit of Hands. OMETIMES a player can infer that his hand would make a good dummy for his partner’s best bid, but his partner’s hand may be useless as a dummy at his best bid, due to probable lack of entries and therefore inability to “get into” the dummy. Such was the case when 8. Benjamin, in a rubber game of contract, a goulash deal, held these cards— 4AQ4 WAKJ10865432¢— g— He bid two hearts. His partner, Howard G. Cornwell, called six clubs, Benjamin six hearts and his partner seven clubs. Beniamin, fearing lack of entries into his partner’s hand, jissed. He was right; the club grand slam was in the cards, but the heart slam was not, for his partner had this hand— 663 9 ®AJ1072 SAKQJI108 Cornwell’s little spades were worth their weight in gold. Uncanny Skill. AM HELLMAN’S partner botched P a hand fearfully, with at least five execrable plays. Each time, however, the terrible play proved profitable be- cause of the freakish hands held by the opponents, and his partner blundered through to make an otherwise impos- sible game. “Your skill is uncanny,” he exclaimed. “An expert would have gone down three tricks on that hand.” Sam ought to know, for, besides belng an outstanding humorist, he comes pretty close to ranking as a bridge ex- pert himself. Contract Systems. N a passing goulash how can partners regulate their second and third passes profitably when it happens that they unfortunately exchanged cards of the same suit or suits on the first pass? The simplest way to control this, and keep from continuing to swap cards of the same suit or suits, is for one of the players to be nominated as “goulash captain” of the side in advance. Then, when such a duplication in passing occurs, the plan laid down by the cap- tain is followed on the remaining passes, giving him the cards his first pass has requested and having him continue to pass those he originally intended to. A somewhat more effective way, when partners understand it, is to have the later passes determined by the height of the cards first passed; the one who passed the highest card of the suit de- sired on later passes would be the one to become the “captain” that pzrticular time, his expressed wishes being fol- lowed. In the following hand, with nobody vulnerable and North as dealer bidding two spades, would East be justified in bidding three hearts? &AQxxX ¥ None ®AKxx #dAKxX & xXXxXXX NORTH YPAJxx ®Qxxx E 5 N & None &xx ¥ xXxx ¢10xx $JIXXXX Happy-Go-Lucky. Happy-Go-Lucky once climbed up a tree, Just to look round and see what he could see; Crack went the bough, such a terrible fall! Didn’t hurt Happy-Go-Lucky at all. Happy grew up, but he never did change— All of his friends said that Happy was strange. Even at bridge he would grin all the while; Happy-Go-Lucky was famed for his smile. " When he was set he would beam just the same; Happy would say it was all in the game; Never disturbed, he would keep playing right— Soon luck would change and he'd win for the night. Even if Happy-Go-Lucky was queer. All of the bunh wish that Happy were here; Since it’s a fact that we r ver will see " him, Let us agree that we’ll all try to be him. Auction Problems. ITH hearts led at no tiump, the ad- versaries taking the first four tricks and then leading a club, how would you plan the balance of the fo'lowing hand? DUMMY V6542 Y] DECLARER @9 910973 ¢QJ109 HAKQ When this hand was actually played recently in a club game, the thoughtless declarer, after taking the fifth trick, in clubs, immediately set out to establish his longest suit in either hand—spades. He took the first two spade tricks with his ace and king, on the second of them drepping both the queen and ten. This left the jack siill out, and it took the next trick. The opponent then led a diamond, so that the dummy’s ace and king scored, also the last three spades, giving declarer a total of eight, or just one less than game. Any person who can count as high as nine should be able to make a sure thing. of such a hand as this, if he will only stop, look and listen. He will see that’ three club tricks, four diamond tricks and two spade tricks would make game. The" one difficulty is that he has no re-entry in his own hand unless he can get rid of the ace and king of clubs in dummy. This is easy to do, however, by leading his two perfectly good clubs, discarding the ace of diamonds on one of them and the king on the other. He then would be enabled to take tricks with the queen, jack, ten and nine of diamonds, then lead his little spade to the ace and king for the two remaining tricks. The New Problem. HOW would you bid and play the fol- lowing hand? : &JoT 9743 ®J54 Q1075 e NORTH ¥v652 ®AQIS2 g SHKJI8E ! SOUTH AAKQ1086 YAQJ10 ¢ 763 & None MAKT532 ¢AK Yorktown Centenary Continued from Ninth Page order to settle the terms. They could not agree.” Then Washington drafted terms, which he sent to Lord Cornwallis, requesting that they should be signed by 11 o’clock on the 19th, and that the garrison should be ready to march out within three hours. Lord Cornwallis, seeing it useless to hope for better terms, yielded. The articles were the same as those which Clinton had imposed on Gen. Lincoln at Charleston. All the troops were to be prisoners of war; all public property was to be delivered up. Run- away slaves and the plunder taken by officers and soldiers as they marched through the coun- try might be reclaimed by their owners, and under this clause Tarleton had to dismount from a splendid horse he had taken from a Vir- ginia gentleman’s stable. The private property of the British officers and soldiers was to be respected. Lord Cornwallis was allowed to send off a packet with dispatches, and secretly put on hoard persons who would be most obnoxious to the outraged people of the South. Lord Cornwallis had lost 350 men during the siege. Seven thousand two hundred and forty- seven, the very flower of the British regular troops, with 840 sailors, thus surrendered. The laxt act of the drama was enacted at 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 19th of October, 1781, and # was the 100th anniversary of this act that the Nation was celebrating by laying the corner stone of a monument at Yorktown in 1881, and in which the patriotic people of Washington were taking a part, as they always do where the opportunity is afforded. Enlarged Capacity. Mary—If I was a fairy, I'd change everythhg into candy and then eat it all up. Mother—But I'm afraid you aren’t big enough to eat so much. ph:‘nm_ot h, @ change myself into an ele-