A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 21949, 25 February 1933, Page 11

A BRIDGE CLINIC

1933 CHANGES NEW CULBERTSON IDEAS. (By Horatius.) Those who have the bidding system built on Culbertson principles should clip this statement of the ideas brought in for 1933, as a result of game experience and the new rules: 1. Opening with One biddable suits may be shaded to K-Q-x-x and A-J-9-x, to avoid opening with a No-Trump bid. 2. Rebids modified: You may rebid a suit without help in that suit by your partner if you hold: A-K--10-x-x or A-J-9-x-x-x. 3. No-Trumps: When Vulnerable you should not make an Opening Bid of One No-Trump unless you hold Four Honour Tricks. 4. Response: If you hold One Honour Trick plus a Queen you may bid No-Trump in preference to a pass in response to your partner’s Opening Bid. 5. Raise: You may raise your partner’s bid of One in suit if you hold 2J playing points in support of his suit. 6. Jump Overcall: This bid is now defensive—it is not a declaration of strength, for which other means are available. 7. Opening Bid of Three: Three In a major and Four in a minor suit as the Opening Bid is pre-emptive, showing not more than Three Honour Tricks and deficiences in defence.

8. Forcing Bids: Four No-Trumps as an overcall over a pre-emptive bid is Forcing. 9. Grand Slams: In bidding Four No-Trumps is used as a Grand Slam invitation and it shows the possession of two Aces. If the partner replies with Five No-Trumps he declares the possession of two Aces. If not Five in a suit discloses the Ace of that suit and denies the other. 10. Jump Rebids: To bid more than is necessary when rebidding a suit over a Forcing Takeout by partner shows a 6-card suit with only one loser in it. 11. Part Score: At part score, an Opening Bid of Two is Forcing for one round, and a subsequent jump requires a response. 12. Jump No-Trumps: Two NoTrumps over a bid of One shows 2i Honour Tricks and Three NoTrumps at. least 3| Honour Tricks. 13. Suit raises: In raising your partner’s suit a double raise requires 1J Honour Tricks and a triple raise needs 2J Honour Tricks (previously it depended on playing points alone and 1J Honour Tricks). 14. Forcing Takeouts: If you hold 3| Honour Tricks you should Force by means of the Jump Takeout, even on a 3-card suit headed by the Ace. The requirement for this Forcing Takeout is now 3J Honour Tricks (it used to be 3 Honour Tricks). These are the most important of the changes. They are not difficult to understand and use. It will be seen that there has been a stiffening in the Forcing bids so far as Honour Tricks are concerned, a shading of the biddable, suit limits, and the introduction of a Four-Five No-Trump convention to lend to Grand Slam bids. An example of this Grand Slam convention is given below (it is taken from play): S: A-K-8 H’ 2 D: A-K-9-8-7 C: K-9-8-4 S: J-9-7-6-4-3-2 N S:.Q-5 H: 5 WE H: 10-7-6-4 D: J-4 S D: Q-10-6 C: 10-7-5 C: Q-6-3-2 S: 10 H: A-K-Q-J-9-8-3 D: 5-3-2 C: A-Jf The bidding was: S. W.' N. E. Ist Rd. IH No 3D No 2nd Rd. 3H No 4D No 3rd Rd. 4NT No SNT No 4th Rd. 7H No No No South held 2i Honour Tricks and he might have said Three Hearts, but that would have suggested weakness. With the One-Over-One he was sure of a response if North held anything. North held 4J Honour Tricks, so he Forced with Three Diamonds. South refused the Diamonds and re-bid his Heart’s showing at least A-K-10-x-x. North rebid Diamonds for the same reason. South now said Four NoTrumps to show two Aces, and North replied, showing the other pair. South knows that North held 31 Honour Tricks when he Forced and he has shown A-K of Diamonds and Ace of Spades. He still has a King; if this is in Clubs, that suit is safe and the only risk is that of the third Diamond; if it is the King of Spades, there is a discard in Clubs. If North rebid on A-J-10-x-x-x of Diamonds he must hold another $ Honour Trick elsewhere, King of Clubs, King of Spades or K-Q-10 of Clubs. This shows that the Grand Slam is almost sure. A Point in Play. Sometimes players worry about the return of a partner’s lead; but often this anxiety is due to lack of reasoning. The other day in play this situation arose. Defending against a bid of Five Spades, West led a singleton 8 of Hearts in response to his partner’s bid of that suit. Dummy put down A-9-x-x and East held K-Q-10-x-x-x. The Declarer played low (a dangerous move) and East’s King made, South playing the 5. Now, it was obvious that the re-lead was worth considering. There was one Heart out. West had not helped the Hearts in the bidding, maintaining a stony silence, and South had held the Ace off for some reason. If West had held the Jack he would have led it, therefore South held it, and the return of the Heart would have led to West ruffing. That is all very simple; but to young players it' appears like wizardry in actual play, because they do not' pause to reason things out. South’s bad play after withholding the Ace was in not throwing the Jack on the King of Hearts to lead East to assume that West held the other Heart. New Auction Laws. In the new Auction Laws, players will find that the revoke provisions have been altered. To-day when a revoke is established, the offender’s side must forfeit two tricks for the first revoke, and one trick for every subsequent revoke. But the penalty shall not affect any trick made before the revoke occurs. A Declarer who revokes may still score below the line, make game and rubber. Thus, if he is playing Four Spades and, having taken ten tricks, he revokes on the 11th, he will make his contract and score game below the line; but he cannot score a Little Slam because he must forfeit two tricks. If the defenders take the first three tricks and the Declarer the remainder, and a revoke on the third trick becomes established, the defenders ecu only lose one trick, because they made two before the revoke occurred. The Declarer adds the one trick to his score and counts as for eleven tricks made by him. A revoke on the 12th trick never becomes established. If a player revoke on that trick it may be corrected without penalty, and it is treated as a corrected revoke. If the revoke is by a defender the declarer may treat the card as exposed or he may require the offender to play the highest or

lowest card of the suit led. If the defender’s revoke is by the Declarer there is no penalty unless the left-hand defender has already followed suit. In that event he may require the Declarer to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led. There is no penalty for a revoke by Dummy, established or corrected.