CONTRACT BRIDGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22193, 21 August 1935, Page 19

CONTRACT BRIDGE

BX FIXESSE

KNOCK-OUT MATCHES ADVICE ON THE PLAY

The more you play duplicate the more, probably, you will like it. In any case do not pronounce a hasty judgment; take part in half a dozen competitions before finally turning it down. An interesting type of competition is the knock-out variety, teams-of-four. In the opinion of Mr. Edward H ymes, of New York, a very successful player in matches of this type, it is the fairest and best test yet developed for duplicate contract. In his opinion this type of match more nearly approximates the rubber game than any pair competition, even without match-point scoring, and for this reason, one's play in general should be very similar to that used in regular rubber bridge. A fortnight ago I pointed out in this column what was considered, in the opinion of experts, to be advisable when playing pair matches, with match-point scoring, as differing from ordinary rubber bridge. Thus two cardinal rales should he uppermost in the player's mind. The first is, don't miss games or slams; and the Becond, keep out of trouble. A third one naturally follows these two, and that is, do everything in your power to prevent the opponents from living up to the first two rules. "Don't Miss Games or Slams" Mr. Hymes goes on to say that with regard to the above slogan, he does not wish to indicate that games and slams which can be made by double dummy play should be bid —and only those. As far as games are concerned, all hands offering as good as one-third chance of producing game should be bid to game, unless they involve too much risk. They should be bid because the chance of obtaining a favourable opening lead, or perhaps not the very finest defence overcomes a great part of the percentage against their being made. The balance on a closed hand should definitely sway in favour of the declarer. But when there is danger that unfavourable division of the_ honours held by opponents or of their trumps can conceivably cause the contract to be set three or four tricks doubled, the possible loss outiveighs the possible gain, and it is not worth while to gamble. Taking the value of a non-vulner-able game at approximately 400 points, and the loss incurred when the contract is defeated one trick undonbied as from 120 to 190 points (50 points for the penalty, and from 70 to 140 points for the loss of the part-score and the part-score bonus), it will be seen that the points to be scored are usually at least twice as great as the points to be lost, and often more. When vulnerable, mathematics favour the bidding of games even more decidedly when it is unlikely that the contract can be defeated by more than one trick.

A further consideration which favours the bidding for doubtful games is that they are practically never doubled, for two reasons: the defending team's lack of knowledge of their own strength, and their fear of giving the declarer too much information as to the location of the high cards they hold.

Where slams are concerned, the percentage, of course, is different, since the potential loss includes the game bonus. In general, slam contracts should have a slightly better than even chance of success, even against the most unfavourable opening lead. Opponents are. perhaps, more inclined to make their best opening lead against a slam, because slam bidding is more informative than game bidding. Keeping Out of Trouble

A general corollary to the statement that the bidding should be aggressive is the rule about keeping out of trouble. There are usually two kinds of hands which • may be bid to game in a suit—safe hands and unsafe hands. A safe hand is one in which the declarer's side have unquestionable control of the trump suit, and in which their principal strength lies in their distributional (or ruffing) power. "While such hands may be set because the adversaries can cash a sufficient number of hqnour tricks, it is improbable that they can arrive at a point at which the declarer's trumps are exhausted and_ they are able to ran a long suit against him, thus piling up costly setting tricks. _ Unsafe hands are those of weak distribution, and on this type of hand players should not fail to be cautious. Sets of 300 or more points sLould. not tvillinsly be taken on these hands, not because such sets do not often represent profitable sacrifice, but because the maximum possible loss may exceed the player's estimate and lead to disastrous results. Close sacrifices should definitely be avoided; in other words, it is usually not sound to welcome a set of 400 to 500 points to save a vulnerable game. This is often correct in a match point game, but in a knock-out match you may discover that the opponents could not have made their game, and that your sacrifice represents a complete swing against vou. Another maxim on the subject of keeping out of trouble deals with psychics. While psychic bidding can often produce good results, this bidding should be indulged in only with hands which can afford to be doubled for penalties s.t lon- contracts. Of course, a skilful team need not worry about being doubled at high contracts after opening psychic bids, since they will probably be able to sign the bidding off at a low level consistent with safety. Probably the finest type of psychic bid is that used by Mr. Howard Scbenken, which ranges from a "semi" to a very light bid. A typical hand would be

A J64 <?KQ 75 3 05 4 2 *KB But psychic bidding, as long as it is safe, is so much to be desired that it is practically a necessity. .First, one must try to interfere with the smooth course of the opponents' bidding; and, second, one must vary one's own game enough so that they will never be quite sure of what one is doing. Value of Psychology

And, finally, the most important fac- ! tor of all is psychology, it is of indescribable value to get the first advantage—that is, to gain a decided 1 swing in the early stages of the match. This disrupts the opponents' morale, and may upset them or make them feel that they are in danger of losing and must play unsoundly in order to make up for lost points. Once your opponents start playing unsoundly, your own chances of success are greatly multiplied. It follows that the greatest psychological advantage you can have is not to allow bad results in the earlv stages of the match to upset you or to affect your game. It is bad practice to "shoot" (overbid). There is always the possibility that your partners have gained as many points as you have lost, or even more. When behind, you can. of course, open the bidding on fairly light hands and bid very slightly more aggressively than usually, but. your first consideration should still be safety and you should more than ever be on the alert to avoid large swings. And "coasting" (thinking you have already won and therefore being overconservative) is just as bad as shooting. 'lhe only way teams with big leads should vary their games is in avoiding any possibility of large sets; they should be very cautious in their vulnerable orercalls. As a general rulosJthev should not bid grand slams, for they can afford to lose the extra bonus of 'SOO or 750 points better than they can afford to lose the primary score for a. Email slam.