CONTRACT BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 223, 20 September 1935, Page 6

CONTRACT BRIDGE.

DEFENSIVE OR ATTACKING PLAY.

(By EtLY CULBERTSON.)

The defending hand in the bidding namely, tho hand which enters the calling after an opening bid —uses different kinds of bidding situations to show minimum, strong or ycry strong hands and strong hands with freakish distribution. Minimum defensive strength is shown by simple overcalls. Hands with long suits but with little outside strength aie shown by jump overcalls. Experience has demonstrated that with the present scoring jump overcalls are most effective when used, •as aggressive defence ratlier than to show very strong hands. For strong hands the takeout double and tho immediate ovcrcall in tho opponents' suit are available. It was a misunderstanding of this situation which brought about disaster to Mr. L. !'• Arnold, of Vredenburgh, Ala., and his partner on the (hand below: South dealer. Both sides vulnerable.

The Bidding. (Figures after bids refer to numbered explanatory paragraphs.) South West North East Pass Pass Pass 1 + 2*(1) 3 Jf» (2) 3 A (3) Dbl. (4) Pass Pass Pass 1. —The jump overcall, which was at the root of all the subsequent trouble. South contended that inasmuch as ho had passed originally, tho two-Heart bid was designed to interfere with opponents' bidding and was not in any sense a forcing bid. North, on tho contrary, misconstrued tflio bid as forcing him to continue the bidding until a gaino contract was readied, inasmuch as hands stronger than minimum opening bids had frequently been passed and that if he desired to sign oil he should have bid thrco Hearts. 2.—West can vision tho probability that North and South are getting into trouble. This bid is designed to facilitate that possibility. 3. —A very dangerous bid in view of the obvious misfit. 4. —The. axe descends. North and South were set six tricks —a total of 2700 points. In submitting the hand the question is asked: "Should South's bid have been considered forcing?" The answer, for tho reasons given above, is unqualifiedly in the negative. The question as to whether or not South should have niivlo tho bid at all is obviously something else again. As tho cards lie, even two Hearts is in for a considerable penalty, but in any event tho use of this type of bid as forcing has been proved inadvisable in tho light of experience. At one time in the Culbcrtson system a jump overcall such as this was used to show a very strong hand, a hand the practical equivalent of an opening forcing bid of two or a distributional hand so strong that less honour tricks were required. It was found, however, that wo had too many strength-showing bids | and too many weakness-showing bids, so that in tho revisions in tho system mado in 1033, and still adhered to, tho jump overcall is not a guarantee of strength but an affirmation of weakness, except that it does guarantco a long and reasonably solid suit, particularly in t>ho situation faced by tho holders of tho North and South hand here. For example, South by his jump overcall of two Hearts has practically guaranteed to his partner that ho will take six tricks with Hearts as trump. This is an optimistic over-estimato of the probabilities of his hand.