A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 21856, 5 November 1932, Page 11

A BRIDGE CLINIC

(By

"Horatius.”)

CONTRACT

The bidding situations of actual play are more interesting and more instructive than those which are based on hands designed to point a particular argument. Out of the famous match between Culbertson and Lenz over two hundred hands of especial interest have been collected, and most of these can be used by players to follow the reasoning of the experts and to marvel at their skill as well as at the mistakes they can make under the stress of tournament play. Expert contract players are human and, therefore, cannot be expected tot play with the persistent accuracy of machines. Looking at the hands taken from this match, one can see the difference between the Culbertson system and the "official” systems sponsored by Lenz. One of the main differences is the use of the Two bid to show a hand stronger than a hand for a bid of One, strong enough for forcing. The official’ Forcing Opening Bid is Three. In High-card Trick valuation the official system classes K-J as i, no more than K-x; A-Q-J 2; A-K-Q is 2J, but otherwise agrees with the Culbertson Honour Trick valuation. The bid of One in suit is made on 2k High Card Trick, the bid of Two on 3—31- guarantees one rebid if partner bids and the bid of Three on 3-7. H.C.T.’s is Forcing or a game Demand. A call made in a suit opened by the adversaries, means in the "Official” system, ability to play the Contract in that suit, unless the player has already participated in the auction, when it means a slam invitation and declares ability to take the first lead of that suit, either with the Ace or by ruffing. Another important variation is that the Official System (0.5.) prefers No-Trump openings to 4-card minor suits, favours opening bids of One on 5-card suits headed by A-K, with nothing else in hand when not vulnerable, and allows one raise of partner’s suit when the responder holds three small trumps, Q-x or better. In the Culbertson—Lenz match, a number of the Opening Two bids ran into trouble. Here is one (Hand No. 4):

N-S vulnerable, and West dealer. The bidding in the match was:

North’s bid of Two Diamonds promised 3-3| H.C. Tricks and 64-7 playing tricks as well as a rebid if partner bids and when South bid he did not need to do more than show his Clubs because North was sure to bid again. But North instead of rebidding his 7card suit went to No-Trumps. Now Jacoby bid Four No-Trumps to give Lenz a chance to go on with the Diamonds. Actually this is what should have happened. The hand can play at Six No-Trumps or Six Diamonds. Culbertson’s bidding would be: N. S. ID 2C 3D 5D 6D — The Two bid not being in Force, there was no guarantee that the bidding would remain open, which may explain North’s bid of Three No-Trumps. In play Lenz made a mistake. He played as if Diamonds were trumps but when he claimed a slam he was astonished to find he had been set by two on Four-No-Trumps. In this case a Jump Overcall failed to reach the desired contract and game was missed:

N-S vulnerable and East the dealer. The bidding was:

West’s bid of One Heart was designed to interfere with the other side’s bidding. South’s bid of One Diamond did not disclose the strength of his hand. Under the Approach-Forcing bidding he would have jumped to Two Dia-

monds showing 3 Honour Tricks. North has no hint of South’s strength and therefore, bids only One Spade. South’s One No-Trump, this occurs often in the Official System, accentuated the previous eakness and Two Diamonds was better. North now shows Diamond help but the single raise may mean only Q-x and South only goes one more. North’s last Pass avoids the chance to show Q-x-x as support for the Diamonds. "The 6 of Clubs was led by West and a little slam was made.

AUCTION

The Grand Coup is not common. Cavendish declared it occurred once in a thousand rubbers of whist, and a modern Bridge expert says that in six years he made only one. In his opinion the makers of Grand Coups should join a club whose membership is more elite and exclusive even than the Hole-in-One Club at Golf. Still it is well to understand the Grand Coup. Opportunity may come. This manoeuvre was given the name Grand Coup by Deschappelles. Briefly it means getting rid of superfluous trumps by ruffing winning cards in the partner’s hand, in order to avoid being compelled to take the lead. It may be done also by undertrumping the partner’s trumps. Most players will argue that one cannot have too many trumps, but if these trumps compel one to lead to the opposing force instead of through it th? excess in trumps is a disadvantage. Here is a simple case taken from an

Spades are trumps Snd the lead is with North. The Jack of Hearts or the Queen of Diamonds may be led and made, but the next lead will compel South to take and lead from A-Q to East’s K-J in trumps, thus losing a trick. If North’s Queen of Diamonds is followed by the Jack East will discard his losing Heart and be assured of one trick. But if North leads his Jack of Hearts and South trumps this winning card, North can be put back into the lead with the Diamond. Now he can lead Diamond or Club through East who must trump from K-J, with A-Q sitting over him. The ruffing of the winning Heart was the Grand Coup piay. . Here is another case:

Spades are trumps and West’s cards are immaterial. The lead is with North. If he leads the winning Ace of Diamonds and South discards 4 of Clubs, the next lead will compel South to take and lead from A-Q to K-2 of trumps. Therefore, South trumps the Ace of Diamonds with the 5, and leads the small Club to North’s Ace. North’s next lead is through East’s K-2 of Spades to South’s A-Q. A third example:

Spades are trumps and South needs five tricks. He has the lead and starts with the Ace of Clubs, eliminating the suit from East and West. Then the 5 of Hearts puts West in, and compels him to lead Diamonds. Dummy ruffs with the 7 of Spades and South throws his 6 of trumps. If South discard his Jack of Clubs he would be forced to trump the next lead and East’s King of trumps would make. By using the Grand Coup, he obtains the lead through West (Jack of Hearts). If East trumps South overtrumps, draws the remaining trumps and makes Jack of Clubs. If East discards a Diamond, South discards the Jack of Clubs, and when North leads a small Club, East’s K-9 is caught by South’s A-Q. The Grand Coup generally becomes effective on the 11th trick, but preparations first started much earlier. Re-entry cards in Dummy are necessary to secure the vital lead through East’s cards, so that the decision to go for the Grand Coup must be made early—that is the difficulty of it. A Double Grand Coup is when two superfluous trumps have to be got rid of, and the Triple Grand Coup refers to the elimination of three superfluous trumps.

W. N. E. S. 1st, Rd. No. 2D No. 3C 2nd. Rd. No. 3NT No. 4NT 3rd. Rd. No. No. No.

E. S. w. N. 1st. Rd. IC ID IH IS 2nd. Rd. No. INT Nb. 2D 3rd. Rd. No. 3D No. No. 4th. Rd. No. — — —-