HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 786, 5 October 1929, Page 32

HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

THE band set out abo\ .• raises a n imber of rather interesting problems; indeed. 1 have not lor some time seen so many arise in regard to a single haad. The score was: Game All; ZY, 16; AB, 14. Z dealt and. : p.e actual bidding was as follows: Z. One fc'pade; A, Double: Y, One 7s oT mp; B, Two Hes rto; Z, Two Spades; A. Three Hearts; Y. Three Spades; B, No Bid: Z, N'o Bid; A, Four Hearts; Y, Double; all passed. Z opened w:th his Spade?, and in the result AB were one down on their contract, as B the < his lo~iug Diamond. ZY made two tricks in Spades, the Ace of Clubs, and the Ace of Hearts, and scored 100 points less AB's G2 houours. or 6S in all. To my mind, this was rather a poor result in view of the cards they held. Let ns, then, review the bidding from the outset and see whether nomething more satisfactory could not have been arrived at. To begin with. T think Z'a initial call should have been Two Spades. His *ide have already scored 10 points on the rubber game, and the Two spade contract, if it ran be made, will, therefore, win the rubber. !Xow it s, I suggest, a cardinal principle in bidding that a game-winning (and, x fortiori, a rubber-winning) call should always be made at the earliest opportunity, if it is reasonable in itself and if danger is threatened by possible calls from one’s adversaries. Now in the case in point, Z’s hand .s worth * • tricks If played in Spades, which means that if Y has his fair >hatc of the remaining cards Z should make his contract; on the other hand, bis cards arc worth hardly an}t bing if any other suit is made trumps. And Fence. in view of the danger threatened by other possible calls, he should, I suggest, be as aggressive as his hand permits. Had Z opened with Two Spades, the subsequent bidding would have been quite different. A would have had three possible calls open to him: Double, Three Clubs and Three Diamonds. Of these, personally, I prefer the Double. Whichever of the three had been made, Y would then have gone Throe Spades, and this, J think, would have closed the bidding, as B could hardly call Four Hearts on his weak hand, while A would be running immense risks in calling either Four Diamonds or Five Clubs. And ZY, as an inspection of the hands will show, would have no difficulty in making their Three Spades. The iritial mistj>;o, then, was Z’s. But I do not regard his partner’s • •ailing as above criticism. His call of One No-Trump over A ’at Double seems to me bad. since, in the first plae<j, it gives the impression that he is not strong in Spades (ns otherwise, at the score, he should support the suit). ; n• i, iii thi second place, it gives B a chance to show liis Hearts. This ZY ought to have prevented at. all costs. The whole point about the hand, from their point of view, ; s that A evidently holds good cards, but is iu doubt a* to his best call; hence B must not be allowed, if it can possiblj be avoided, to give him any assistance. From this analysis, I conclude that Y, on the first round, should have called, not One No-Trump, but Three Spades, as before, effectively silences the oppositoi.n.

A Problem In Bidding {Written for THE SL'S by "Caliban. — -Copyright in S etc Zealand.) SKpades K 10 X Hearts A x diamonds C! i X X C'iubs A x X. x Spade* X I Spades x x x Heart# K J x Hearts Q lu x x x Diy men A •» 10 x Diamonds x x Club* K V .1 10 Clubs xxx Spades A Q .] X X Hearts X X X Diamonds K x X Clubs X X