MINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 762, 7 September 1929, Page 29

MINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

The Pre-Emptive Raise {l>y “Caliban” in the “Ration and Athenaeum”—Through the Courtesy of the Publishers) IN ray last article I discussed the original pre-emptive bid. I want now to d*al with a related, but less well understood, aspect oil the game. The interesting hand which follows (and which is "taken from actual play) Will servo £.s an introduction.

The score was: Game all; Love all. Z dealt and opened with One Heart, and the subsequent bidding was. A, One Spade; Y r , Two Hearts; B, Four Spades; Z, No Bid; A, No Bid; Y, Five Hearts; B, Five Spades; Z, No Bid; A, No Bid; Y, Six Hearts; B, Six Spades; Z, No Bid; A, No Bid; Y, Double; all passed. It will be noticed that B, on the first round of bidding, made a mild attempt at ‘ * pre-empting,but that, in view of the unusual distribution of the cards, it was not a sufficiently bold one. ATJ, however, were fortunate, as a glance at the hands set out will show; they made their Six Spades doubled, scoring 10S plus 50 plus 45 plus 50 points to the point which the hand is intended to illustrate. If Y on the first round had called Six Hearts, as I think he should have done, that would have closed the bidding, and ZY (who would have made Seven Hearts against a Spade lead as easily as AB made their Spades) would have scored 5(5 plus 16 plus 100 points, totalling, with 250 for the rubber, 422. A s error of judgment, in not taking warning from the danger-signal of A ’s call, thus cost YZ 925 points. 1 It may be argued that, under the circumstances of a pre-emptive raise A’s best lead would have been his singleton Club—a lead which defeats YZ’s contract. I agree; but A declared, in the course of the post-mortem, that he would iu fact have led the King of Spades. In any event, a loss of 50 points (less 16) is very much better, from YZ’s point of view, than the loss of the rubber. To return now to Y. Why do I think he should have made so aggressive a call as Six Hearts? For these reasons: o out ” lUbber game ‘ Tberefore < he should have argued), AB will (2) A has called Spades against Z’s Hearts. This means that AB have an mitral advantage iu the bidding. A kas five Hearts to the Queen, all the Diamonds, and good Clubs. A has shown the Spadea Therefore, Z tnust have, at the very worst, four Hearts to the Ace, King. ’ . O) And therefore ZY should be able to make at least the small slam m Hearts. And since Spades are a real danger (for Y is void of the suit, and as likely as not one of the adversaries is void of Hearts), it is better to spike AB s guns immediately. Once they get into conversation about opad.es, the advantage m bidding passes from YZ to AB. This, we have seen, is what actually happened. The hand, while in some respects a freafc,” well illustrates how important it is not to sunender the initiative jn bidding, unless one has a hand which is strong and sufficiently well balanced, to ensure that one can punish heavily any adverse calL In all other cases the supporting hand, with a call m sight, should endeavour at once to shut out conversation between the adversaries. .