HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 29

HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Caliban's Duplicate Bridge Contest (VI) (Written for TUB SUN t>g aZtfran.'*—- Copy# ty/>i in A eiv Zealand.)

AT all four tables Z opened the bidding with a Club; but onto again 1 find myself unimpressed by this concensus of opinion. With Z’» hand I should, as dealer, unhesitatingly declare One No-Trump. The hand, given fair support from partner, should be good for two overtricks iu NoTrumps. At any rate, the call can do no harm, while the Clubs are still available if opposition in a major suii develops*. However, One Club was the initial bid. At one table no bid was made. A thought it safest to leave xvell alone; Y was naturally well pleased with the Cub declaration (on his hand I should have raised the call to Three); B was unwilling to take a chance on his Diamonds. ZY, of course, made Three Clubs (losing two Diamonds, a Club, and the King of Spades), but they ought not to hax r e been allowed to get away with it so easily. At the other three tables A called One Heart, and this led in each case to a different final declaration. At one table Y and B supported their respective partners, and Z secured the final declaration xvith Three Clubs. At a second table Y called Two Clubs and B supported his partner, but Z was unwilling to carry the declaration further. AB got home iu Two Hearts, as I think they were bound to do. At the last table Y, on the second round, showed his Spades, and was left in with a Two-Spade contract. He was defeated by 100 points, but this must, I think, have been the result of poor play. Played properly, the Two-Spade contract should get home. In my judgment the bidding on this hand showed that Bridge players generally are not courageous enough (I have a striking collection of statistical material, which I shall presently publish, that substantiates this view). The best bidding of the hand, as I think, would have been as follows: *

llns hand—which is one that occurred recently in actual plav—proved a iascinatiDg exercise. Z’s initial call was One Spade at three tables and two Spades at the fourth. I do not greatly like the Two fspadcs- it suggests (what is not true) that Z >s hand is like]/ to be useless tn it depnves him of his opportunity of showing his Clubs at a later stage X should call One Spade every time. ® * Nevertheless, the Two-Spade call proved very profitable to YZ, owing i A tu part ' FrOIU motives which are not very intellfgibio, lie doubled; had the sense to do nothing (many players would have U an * ed ’ , ' r ‘ th fatal results, inti a call of Three Hearts); and B—uncertain whether his partner s double was “American" or “ business ” —called J hr ,^ a il ® arta bimsolf - Thls unhappy venture was doubled, aud was “set " as they say in America, for three tricks. ’ If A had said nothingg, Z would, presumably, have been left in and would have made Three Spades—a rather poor result ’ H « as