U.S. CARD FEVER

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11539, 16 January 1932, Page 9

U.S. CARD FEVER

HUGE PROFITS FOR EXPERTS. £50,000 A YEAR FROM BRIDGE. MILLION-PLAYERS-TOURNAMENT If Mrs. Battle -were"alive,’ she wou’d east approving glances tin Americans as they play _ their contract/ bridge, states a New York correspondent of the “Daily ’Mail.’* ( She who loved “the rigour of the game’’ would find herself thoroughly at home at a modern contract bridge paiYy. She would find “a thoroughpaced partner and a determined enemy.” Tlie only objection that she might make would be. that the “clear hearth” wou’d have; given way to central heating.

Americans, like Lamb’s -famous, old lady, carry their game to its logical conclusion.’ They will have no “half-and-half p’ayers, no lukewarm gangsters.” That is why they have abandoned a uction for contract.. Auction.: they argue, • is, a child’s game to which few players will give any real attention because—why bid more tricks than you need? Whereas in contract you enjoy the full flavour of your own audacity, and, indeed, suffer disastrously if you do not' bid to the full limit of your power. HUNDREDS OF TEACHERS. In their own enthusiastic way Americans have carried contract beyond a game until it is an industry. When one of their leading players can earn £500,000 a year at ihs game, contract has obviously got beyond a pastime. There are hundreds of teacher* scattered throughout fhe country with pupils numbering hundreds of thousands, maybe millions.-Books on the game are best sellers, and dozens may be bought on all aspects of it. Like all great movements', the present craze for contract centres round an individual. Mr. Ely Culbertson, with his vivacious, challenging personality, has ranged the Unitd States into two camps, those who- play his bidding system and those who ar** adopting what is known as the. “omcial system,” of which tlie best-known exponent is Mr. Sidney Lenz. INTERNATIONAL MATCH • ' Not content with his contest of wits against the “official system.” Mr. Culbertson is organising what is •already named the "million player tournament.” On January 20 sixteen, hands will be broadcast for the "widest international match ever staged iu history.” Exports thoughout tie* world will p'ay these bauds, but they can be picked up by any keen bridge players who care to organise a quartet.

The bidding of selected players and their play of hands will be sent to flic National Bridge Association.' who will award cups to each country or region in the competition. This present war of-the bridge table has many amusing features. Thera are innocent players who'believe that if they can learn bv heart the system of their chosen expert, then. they will automatically play as well as ho docs. Unfortunately, when confronted with the cards dealt them, these sanguine folk find difficu’tv in fitting their knowledge to the hand before them. Sponsors of the official system recognise this when they state in their book that a pack of cards can be distributed into 53.G4-1,737,792,839,23v •- •110,000 combinations., ■Some players can be so guileless as to make any advice almost useless. There is a story of a woman from St. Louis who was playing with her husband as a partner and found the thirteen spades ill her hand. “Daring”, she said, “what docs one do alien one has thirteen spades?” The remark lost her the bridge chance of her life. The hands were all promptly thrown ui.

The so-called “official”' system is. of course, a misnomer. There can bo no official system on the method of p’aying your hands. Mr. Culbertson has said that his system is based on the simple rule that your partner wilt be a “moron.” Ho admits also that your partner will so regard you. Therefore, he says, you must have a system of bidding as elastic as possible. You must approach by slow degrees to tho highest bid possible in any given hand rather than by jumping into, the deep end .with , the 'risk of left- to’ struggle to' shore-as best you can. • '. > - - •" ‘ This modern development of' bidding offers ondless fun to- cartoonists.