AUCTION BRIDGE

Evening Star, Issue 18045, 12 August 1922, Page 11

AUCTION BRIDGE

1 • [Specially Written by Ernest Beegholt for the ‘Evening Star.’] No. XIV. I have received suggestive letters from some of my readers' on various points that I have been discussing in my recent articles, “I have been reading with great interest,” writes “Falcon,” “your articles on tho original short-suit call of, one Club or ono Diamond. It seems to me that there is a middle course to i bo pursued, and I should bo obliged if you would give your views on this subject. It is a system that I havo been using for tho last two years or more, and I have found it satisfactory, “It is as follows :—Whenever I contemplate calling dubs or Diamonds I ask myself what kind of an exposed hand my cards will contribute, in ease my partner calls a Spade, a Heart, or No-trump. I call one Chin or ono Diamond, provided that my cards fulfil the following conditions:— “ (a) If my cards offer such support that I would put my partner up two, suppos, ing him to have started with one Heart or one Spade, and to have been overcalled. “ (b) If my cards also comprise two sure tricks, or one euro and two probable tricks, for defence. “ Provided that my' cards fulfil these two conditions, and that I have the initial call, I bid on© Club or one Diamond on a short suit. For example : Hearts, K, 10. 3, A, 9,5; Clubs, A, K, 8. 7, 54; Diamonds 7,6, 5, A, Q, 5; Spades, J, 10, 8,2, J, 8,7, 2. “ But if, on tho contrary, I have support in only one of the major suits, I do net call ono Club or one Diamond unless I have a genuine Club or Diamond hand enabling mo to call my partner off again if he should bid tho major suit in which I am weak. For example : “ Hearts, 7,6; Clubs, 9,8,3_; Diamonds, A, K, 6,5, 4; Spades, K ,7, 5. “ Her© I should bid ono Diamond. But I should pass- the declaration if I held: “Hearts, 7,6; Clubs, 9,8, 3,2; Diamonds, A, K, 6; Spades, K, 7,5, 4.

“You will see that I call ono Club or ono Diamond, not specially as an invitation to No Tramps, bfit as an invitation to a major suit, as showing a hand of some strength if mypartner prefers No Trumps, and as a promise of two tricks in support in case he should wish to double any bid of the opponents.” If my corresppndcnt has submitted the preceding system to tho test of experience for the space of two years, and has found it to operate quite satisfactorily, he is probably better qualified to pronounce an opinion upon it than I, who have never tried it. I cannot help 1 feeling, however, that his own words condemn it when he implicitly confesses that such Club or Diamond calls are not “genuine” ones. Under such conditions be says that ho docs not call -a minor suit “ unless he has a genuine call” in that suit. How much better, surely, it would be never to make an initial call in any suit unless U be a “genuine” one! I havo a great dislike to a “free” call! which is not intended to be taken at its face value, but as an “invitation” to something else. I distrust altogether the doctrine that a minor suit bid is nob a bona fide contract at all, but is only the promise r.f “ at least two tricks to assist the partner if be has a better bid, or to defend the game in case the opponents get she declaration.” (Foster on Auction, p. 58.) My belief is that an initial bid should always be an attacking bid—a bid which undcr.ta.kcß to fulfil the purposed contract provided that partner can contribute bis average share of the cards which the bidder himself docs not hold. I am sorry to see. that Mr William Dalton, in tho latest (eighth) edition, just published, of his book upon the game, snows a tendency to break away from this doctrine, and to veer round to Mr Foster’s maxim that “ the function of the minor Suite is to induce the partner to do something better, or to snow_ him_3yhere he may expect, some defensive strength in case the other .sido plays the band.” (Dalton’s ‘Royal Auction" Bridge/ p. 21.) According to my ideas, this is only a partial statement of the truth. _ I am strongly of the opinion that every initial—“free” —bid ought to be a make; or, in other words, that it ought to proclaim a. cheerful willingness to abide by the contract undertaken. In addition to this, however, if, in the suit named, five odd tricks - would be necessary to win the game, the bid naturally invites partner to do something better if be ran, and offers quick tricks, in support of any such better contract that can be proposed from the other sido of the table. It should therefore announce a combination of both strength and length. Far be it from me to seek to discredit Mr-Dalton’s bonk. He. is snob a breezy and entertaining writer, bis views are often so sound, and bis courtesies to myself personally have been so frequent that I feel great reluctance in differing from him. I would rather appeal to his own better judgment against a dictum which, I think, must have been a hasty one. “ There is ono point on which nearly all good players are in accord, and that is that an original declaration, either by tho dealer or by any other player, must be a. sound one, and one that can bo relied' upmu. It must mean a. hand above the average. An average hand represents a quarter of the pack, and contains ono ace, ono king, one queen, and so on. No player has a right to make an original call on less strength than that, unless lie has an exceptionally long suit, with one or two high cards at the head of it.’’ These are golden words. Where do you think I found them? ■ On pago 14 of that very eighth edition of Mr Dalton’s book from which I have been previously quoting. Can these words bo reconciled with tho advice he gives on page 21? I think not.