A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 22293, 7 April 1934, Page 11

A BRIDGE CLINIC

AUCTION AND CONTRACT DON’T BE SELFISH. (By Horatius.) Most people in Bridge (Auction or Contract) have the misfortune to play ■with selfish partners, who positively decline to think of any but their own cards. You have met them frequently and suffered; but how are you y° u J" self? When you have a poor hand do you think of every way in which you can assist your partner? Usually, you don’t. In the first place any indication that your hand is hopelessly uninteresting permits the Declarer to shape his play so that the finesses can be taken safely or avoided. The absurdity of any gesture revealing a lack of interest in your own hand may be gauged when it is realized that if the inference is unjustified your gesture is cheating, if it is sound, you have betrayed your partner. That is an elementary stage. Do you think of the information you can convey to ycur partner by your leads and plays? The fact that you have not a winning card in your hand does not affect the situation: your possession of only two cards in a suit may be all that your partner wishes to know in order to obtain a complete picture of the Declarant’s hand. Assume that your partner has bid and has been overcallcd with No-Trumps by the Declarant. You will then open ycur partner’s suit, and you hold, say, 9-7-3. The lead of the 9 is obvious. Now, if the 10 is not in sight, your partner knows where it is; but if on the next trick you play the three, he does not know the whereabouts of the 7 and that card may be vital. If the 7 were thrown on the second trick, your partner, knowing that the Declarant would not play a higher card if he held the 3, will credit you with it, and he will understand the distribution of the suit because he will look on your play as a signal of three cards originally. The missing trey is the secret of the deduction. Now if you play 9 and then 3, your partner will credit you with no more; but if you play 9-2-3 he will know you have another, because with only three you would have played 9-3-2. It is all very simple isn’t it? That is the Foster 3-card echo for NoTrump play and it can be applied usefully. Of course, you may argue that your partner will not be able to read these signs. Well, explain to him if you get the chance, but if that cannot be done do it for practice and you will be rewarded when you strike a partner who has given some attention to defensive play. Remember that the highlow Echo —the play or discard of a higher card first—means you have no more. If you lead 9 and then play 7, it means no more unless there is some clear reason for you doubting this, such as the 9 being 'he lead of your suit and the lower cards being accounted for. . This echo to show a doubleton can help your partner to place the suit, and remember that when he has obtained an idea of the number of cards in a suit held by the Declarant, he can form an idea of the rest of the hand, distribution and actual cards. There are thirteen cards in each suit, and thirteen cards in each hand. If you have a doubleton in a suit someone holds more than 3, and if that someone holds 5, there is one suit in his hand of which he holds no more than 2. If he has bid No-Trumps and your play shows that the Declarant holds 5 cards in that suit, your partner can deduce that this long suit is not headed by King or it would have been bid; or by a strong honour combination. Thus he infers that the honour strength i is elsewhere. With his own cards and Dummy’s to help him he can begin to place these. This came out of your echo. r

A lead from three honours in sequence is sound against No-Trumps. Therefore, if you open with the lead of the Queen, your partner should credit you with Q-J-10 or three honours, because a high-card should not be led against a No-Trump contract unless there are three. The lead of an Ace in these circumstances promises an extra long suit and it invites your partner to get out of the way by throwing his highest card on it and to allow you to place the other cards in the suit. Your lead suggests that you think you can set the contract with this suit. Four-Five No-Trump. Lt.-Col. Walter Buller is still writing to people and at people declaring that the Portland Club’s reply to his question renders the Four-Five NoTrump convention and all Ace-showing illegal because they “expose” cards; but the position to-day is that the lawmaking authorities in the United States have dissented from the Portland’s interpretation, while the French authorities have concurred in it. As the existing laws were made by all three countries, the question arises whether the agreement of all three is or is not necessary in interpreting them. The Portland Club has been asked this question, and also whether its interpretation is binding in England. The Portland’s invariable reply is that it has no statement to make.

In these circumstances the majority of clubs in Britain are not banning Ace showing. The Portland has not banned the Four-Five No-Trumps convention in the tournament for the Portland Cup, played on its own premises; and this and other Ace-showing conventions were allowed in the Bridge League Gold Cup tournament and in the tournament for the Tollemache Cup. This means that the Four-Five NoTrump convention has been played for a competition held by the Portland Club on its own premises and that the Bridge League, that anti-Culbertson organization, permits it. The Portland Club’s ruling virtually is ineffective and so the Four-Five No-Trump and Ace-showing conventional bids must be regarded as legal in the Dominion. A LEADING PROBLEM.

" S: K-8-2 E H: A D: A-J-7-6-4 C: Q-5-4-3 S (Dummy) S: Q-4 H: J-7-6 D: K-9-8-3-C: A-10-7 •2 The bidding was: E. S. W. N. ID No 2D 3S No 3NT No 4S No No No — How should East play?