BRIDGE NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20086, 15 November 1930, Page 4

BRIDGE NOTES.

HELP FOR PLAYERS AND BEGINNERS. (WE«aih wiums n, [By William Shackle.] The following hand is on © which I saw played, only this week, in Christchurch. It serves to show how much depends on the correct card being -played, even though it may not seem to matter. It carries out my last week's notes regarding the "higher of a doubleton.',' Y. Spades—Q. J. x Hearts—K.. Q. ,xx ■Liamonda— 10 xx ' Clubs—A.. 10 x A, jj Spades—A K xr. St»ad«.-lo " x Hearts—-10 rfe.rts-®. J. Diamonds x* Bi»raom} s ~J. - Clubs—K. xkkkk Clubs-—J. XSXk Z. Spadea—jaacx Hearts—sat diamonds—A. X. 'Q. XIX Clubs—Q. X is any card under a 10. Score . Game all, YZ, 12 in rubber game. B dealt. Bidding B lIJ, Z 2D, Ano bid, Y 2 No trumps. No bid. 3D. No bid. No bid. A led K of Spades—B discarding 2 instead of 10. A/ then leads highest card of B's call. i.e. 10 of Hearts, which B takes with the ace. B leads now a small club in the hope of establishing what looked like his only possible trick, J of clubs. Naturally Q, K. and A. all fell, but the lead was now in dummy, so trumps were led, with the result that Z made all but one trick—the aee of spades—four over—making game and rubber all through B dropping the 2 of spades instead of the 10. Now see what would have happened if B played the 10 to A's K. of spades. A would have led A. of 8., knowing that B had either onlv one or no more spades. Next A leads x S., which B takes with a trump. B leads A. of H. and A drops his 10. B leads xH and A trumps with x. A leads xS, Y puts on 10 of trumps, B plays J. of trumps. B leads xH, which is trumped by Z with the Q. Z Y making the rest, but being 2 down on their bid of 3 Diamonds. Score A B 100 above the line instead of Y Z scoring 28 below the line plus 250 for ruboer—a difference of 378 points. Remember this is by no means a freak hand; on the contrary quite a normal distribution. Apart from failing to give his partner information that B bad only two spades, it also made it impossible for A to let his partner know that he was short suited in Hearts, as by the lead of, the 10 of Hearts B could only suppose it was the highest card of tne suit which B had called. Whereas when B led the Ace of Hearts—as in the second example—A by playing 10 showed his partner that he had at most two of that suit, thus it inade B lead a further round of Hearts, with the consequent cross ruffing. Beginners. The following two bands show interesting bidding. Next week I will give the bidding as 1 should call, but so as to make it interesting, I suggest that you write down your own bidding and see how nearly it compares with mine next week.. It is better to get four players and ea<sh bid 86 if playing, as one is not supposed to have seen the other three hands. Z deals (and bids) in each case. Z.Y. v. A-B. No. 1— Z. A. Y. B. S- 10 S3 Q.J.663 K. 4 A.73 H. 10 6 Q. 91 K. 32 A.J.886 D. A.961 K.J.85 Q. 73 103 C. A.K.66 4 Q.J.932 10 7S Ko. 1— 8.A.106452 Q,JjO K. 785 H. a A.J.B K.976S K.IOM D. Q. 963 ! X.76 10 548 A.J. C. KQ. J. 952 , A.84 10 7G3