Evening Star Newspaper, December 14, 1930, Page 108

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 14, 1930, & TuE BRiDGE ForRuM * Singletons, Doubletons and Blank Suits Are Worth no Tricks fo the First Bidder. F a singleton is a chameleon, in the way it changes its nature from lia- bility to asset, or vice versa, a veid or blank suit is a regular Jekyll and Hyde. Nothing is more impertant to impress on the mind of the neophyte than the changing value of these peculiar elements cf a bridge hand. The worst advice on bidding that has tome to our attention in half a decade is included in a little booklet on the game which is being distributed to thou- sands of bridge players—beginners and otherwise—by a respected manufacturer, who, of course, means to be helping rather than hurting them. His fine motives, however, will nct prevent the . loss of thousands of games and rubbers, Hmited .only by the distribution of the book. It is being spread about to such an extent that some one should set the misadvised bridgers aright. In valuing his hand for bidding a suit the player is urged to count two tricks for any singleton and one trick for any doubleton, granting that he has the nee- essary high card sirength and that the suit he bids is strong enough. Oddly eénough, no mention is made of any value for a void suit. . The fact of the matter—one of the things on which absolutely every au- $hority of standing in every part of the World agrees—is that a singleton, double- hnotvoldsuitcannotbeco\mteduwy part of a trick in the original bidder’s Band, It has great value in the hand of the partner when the latter is con- Sidering raising the first bid—but that §s a different proposition entirely. Perhaps the matter can be made most elear by giving a simple example. Sup- pose a dealer holds this hand: & AKQJIS3 938 ¢32 45432 Any player—good, bad, or indifferent, be- ginner or expert—will count those six Spades as bei.g worth six tricks if the hand is played with spades as the trumps. If he also counts two tricks for his Single- ton heart and one more for his double- ton in diamonds, he will estimate nine tricks in the hand, which it ‘positivelv gcannot take. A worthless singleton or doubleton never took a trick and never will in any- body’s hand. It simply affords an op- portunity for the use of a trump, which technically is called “ruffing” a trick. But the trick is taken by the trump, and the trump is already counted by the first bidder as a trump trick. Manifestly the same trump card—say, for instance, the 5 of spades—cannot take two tricks, for it can be played on only one trick. Hence the singleton, doubleton or void suit cannot be counted as a trick in the original bidder’s hand. Over in the hand of the partner there is a situation regarding singletons, doubletons and void suits as different as day is different from night. There the “short suit,” as many call it, has a most definite value. Suppose the partner of the player with the hand just given should hold these cards: 4762 99543 @654 4876 His hand is absolutely worthless. The Side will take no tricks at all except the six won by the first bidder. The three little trumps of this weak partner will fall on the big trumps of the other hand. I, however. the partner has this hand: 4 762 99543 ¢ 87654 S 6 The three little trumps become valuable. The declarer—if his partner winds up as the declarer—can use them separately, frumping clubs with them, so that out of the same trump holding in the two bands he gets some extra tricks—one extra if he trumps once, two extra if be trumps twice, etc. Thus, thie trumps have a very real value in the hand of the player who supports his partner’s suit bid. but not in the hand of the one who first names the suit. A void suit o singleton may even prove a Jjability to the first bidder’s side if the purtner has strength in that suit and he is unable to lead to it. There are so many good books, sound books, on the market that it is too bad gceasional misinformation gets into the hands of aspiring players. hurting their Bame instead of helping it. ‘The bridger By Sihepard Barclay. The Night Worker. It’s not so good to be outdoors When streets are thick with sieet and snow And note the cozy happy homes And see the hearty fireside glow And cheery groups of friends and kin All playing bridge and having fun, With buoyant hearts and carefree minds, The while his work has just begun. Next time you have a losing game And all the hands are running bad And every play you try goes wrong Until you think you're going mad, Perhaps you’ll find it helps you some, No matter how your cards may go, To wonder if you’d rather be . Out tramping through the sieet and snow. kindly heart. A Law a Week. What is the penalty if a player on the de- Jensive side revokes, and on a later trick of the same hand his pertmer revokes? What if both partners revoke om the same-trick? N auction the revoks penalty for a side is two tricks for its first revcke, one trick for each subs2quent revoke. Thus the penalty in either of the above cases wculd be three tricks, which would be taken from the pile of tricks won by the offending side and added to the pile won by the other side; they count for the latter exactly as if won in play. If the revoking side does not have enough tricks to pay the penalty it merely sur- renders those it does possess; if it have ncone there is no penalty. In contract the revoke penalty is two tricks for the first revoke by any player and 100 points in the honor score for each subsequent revoke by the same player. In both cases given each partner makes one revoke, costing two tricks each, or a total of four tricks, counting for the other side exactly as if won in play. If the revoking side have not enough tricks to pay the full penaity the adversaries take all the tricks they have and 100 points for each revoke which would otherwise remain in whole or in part unpenalized. Next week—What is the penalty if on thz same trick both deciarer and ome adversary revoke, and on a later trick that same adversary commits @ second revoke? Contract Systems, H OW would you bid the following hand, neither side being vulnerable and South the dealer? 4109873 ¥ None ¢ 39862 SHKQ3 AKJG g YAQJI10852 E v 74 g A jeKQ105) ® o - HAITEE 453 AAQ4 VK9763 oA S 10852 South, of course, opens with one heart, in every system. West has the big prob- lem of this hand. He wants to show his partner desire to play the hand in hearts, but a bid of two hearts would convey no such information in contract; it would have a conventional meaning of indicat- ing game likelihood in some other declaration and compel partner to take the bid out. Even a rebid of hearts after partner’s takeout would not show the wish for a heart trump, but quite the contrary. It wculd signal slam, ratify the partner’s choice of declaration and proclaim lack of any losers in the heart suit—perhaps a void suit. There is one way only of making plain to a partner the desire to play the hand at hearts—a bid of one more than neces- sary, or three hearts. Since a two bid would be the conventional forcer, a three bid could be nothing but pre-emptive in nature, showing the extremely freaky situation that exists. After North's pass East would be justified in showing his diamonds with a bid of four diamonds, his partner taking the call to game bid in hearts, or he could bid the four hearts himself, knowing his partner does not need trump support. When this hand was actually played the partner went directly to the four hearts on his side strength, and the contract was made, the opponents winning only one spade, one heart and one diamond. : 4 How would you bid the following hand, neither side being vulnérable and South the dealer? a1 vJ10962 *94 £Q983 AAK98652 [ NORTH ] . 03 YAKQS873 g w5 ¢ None g § ¢832 None L ) v hAJI0OTS & None v4 ®AKQJ10765 hK542 Auction Problems. T would you lead from the fol- : lowing hand against a dealer’s original bid of one no trump? Of one spade? One heart? One diamond? ® AK109 938652 ¢ 433 498 Against a no trump original bid the correct lead is the ten of spades. A fourth- best lead is not conventional when an “honor combination” is possessed— at least three cf the six top cards of the 3 hand contains two ing honors, and the king not be the correct lead wunless here were a sure side entry also. With es trumps we have the loclcalleadolt.helongestddeuntwhen With hearts as trumps, four being held, a spade is the propec lead, the king —first choice of the three positive leads against a suit, the ace-king, king-queen * and queen-jack combinations. The king of spades would also be the correct lead against diamonds or clubs, the only positive lead in a hand contain- ing no special reasons for leading otherwise. The New Problem. HOW would you bid and play the fol- lowing hand, South being dealer? 4Q3 V1063 ¢KJI53 SAK93 NORTH AAT2 i~ vJ8153 g sQ4 HT763 AKJ9 PK4 ®Al08T SQ84 Conquer Forest Fires. HIS past year, which had everything staged for a great epidemic cf serious forest fires, because of the drought, turned out to be a very successful year in fire-fighting and fire-” preventicn. While there were as usual hun- dreds of fires, efficient equipment, good roads and well trained firefighters were able to com- bat the fires while they were young, and keep them within comparatively small areas. Lightning, as wusual, was responsible for many fires, more than 1,000 having started from this cause in the first nine months of the year. However, the lightning fires, like most of the others, were caught early in the game by the expert rangers, and were quickly hemmed in and forced to burn out over small areas. This efficient combating of the fires was accomplished at much lower than average costs, with the result standing as a credit to the forestry experts who have been carryiog on their control work against what at times seemed like insurmountable odds. ” Value in U, S. Stamp. THE appeal of the stamp of approval by the Pederal Government was well shown in a recent survey of the tobacco market. nmmmmmmmb bacee lacking the Government's grade mark,