Judge — June 1933 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Been Dispelled By Derrick J. Wernher EN I started to play Contract, I moved in a fog. I was born in an environment where fogs are fre- quent, but in London you cannot avoid them. For a long time, I thought that in Contract the sun would never shine through. I was wandering aimlessly, seeking directions from those who could see no further than I. I consulted fa- mous experts whose knowledge of Auction I had reason to respect. I asked them about Contract and they (quite unconsciously, I am sure) continued telling me about Auction. I did not know that I was lost because I was play- ing Auction with Contract scoring. ORTUNATELY, Hal Sims liked me well enough to lead me out of the fog. He knew from the first that this was a new game governed by un- known new principles which had to be discovered and understood before effec- tive methods could be worked out and applied. I was accepted into the inner circle of the Deal laboratory where the investigation was proceeding along or- derly lines. By consistent playing and tireless analysis, the fog was gradually dispelled and the pioneers eventually reached light. The results of this lengthy process were not published until last year, when “Money Contract” made a sensation amongst card players for the reason that its principles were immediately rec- ognized as true because logical and simple. Not until 1932 was Mr. Sims fully satisfied that the experimental period was over, and that the Sims sys- tem had been so fully tested against the finest players in the country it could be placed before the public. EADERS of Deat will discover for themselves why Sims players can relax in bidding big hands; why they miss so few games and yet are so seldom doubled without redoubling ; why they bid and make so many nip and tuck games but avoid serious penalties when the contract must fail. In other words, why they find the game so interesting and so exhilarating. I would like to draw attention to some of the usual predicaments that have been practically removed,. not by mathematical calculation or artificial convention, but by common sense and knowledge of card playing. That is how the Maestro has made the game such fun to play. Mr. Sims never tires of stressing the fact that Contract is an entirely differ- ent game from Auction as regards the bidding. In Auction you bid against your opponents; in Contract you bid for your partner. You have to play 26 cards against 26; the more your bid- ding can comprise 26 cards and not 13 alone, the more nearly will it approxi- mate the number of tricks which your side can actually deliver in the play, whether as declarer or on defense. Con- sequently : 1, To judge a hand for purposes of opening the bidding by its primary tricks only, and not also by its type, is pitting 13 cards against 26. When a player says to himself: “I have 2% primary tricks (or three, if you like), therefore I must bid,” or, “I have a trifle less than this, therefore I must pass,” he should also add: “The only man in America who could make practical use of this nonsense is Ed Wynn.” 2. To make an opening forcing bid when to make game you require a nat- ural response is like taking a partner in a golf foursome and breaking his best clubs before the start. 3. To make jump forcing responses when you do not know that the two hands have a good fit somewhere is like disconnecting your brakes before you start.on a trip in a fast car. 4. To treat no trump opening bids as less important than suit bids—to say, “Never bid a no trump if you can bid a suit,” is the same as saying toa big game hunter, “Any time the lion charges you, drop your rifle and use your air gun; if it bursts, it will hurt you much less.” 5. To open light in the first two po- sitions and require a big holding to make a third or fourth hand bid, is like say- ing: “Jeeves, I'll take my Palm Beach suit to Iceland; send the fur coat to be ready for me in Miami.” 6. To give all your raises at once and to ignore the One-over-One re- sponse and the Leeway Principle is equivalent to an admiral giving an or. der such as: “Send the enemy a copy of our only code-book ; tear up our navi- gation charts; no risk is worth taking unless it is unnecessary.” 19 Slams and Finesses By Zero-doceus HE Sims Summary of Money Con- tract is now available; it contains the main points of the Sims System in easy reference form, conveniently in- dexed. Price $1.00. Published by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York. Is a team which was recently defeated by almost 10,000 points on 48 hands to be proclaimed internationally as repre- sentative of American championship form? It is very fine to be imaginative, and it is very fine to be brilliant, but when you find your imagination and brilliancy crystallizing into a rut which calls for the unorthodox on every hand, then you are becoming as wooden as the most mechanical of conventional players, without the virtue of soundness. We hear that Hollywood too has been suffering from the “rocks of distribu- tion.” There should be an abundance of humor at the championship tourna- ments. There are so many famous wits among the champions—Zedt and Bosco, for example. Around Christmas time an alleged non-profit organization was crowned with an expensive Bridal or funeral? Let us keep Bridge more like golf than tennis. Golfers use clubs, as against the things tennis players use. We give the Bronx cheer to the kibit- zer in a recent New England tourna- ment who, when the bidding reached six hearts, excitedly insisted on his right to have the bidding reviewed. Are you bidding Contract—but still making Auction leads against Contract bidding ? The “Sims Contract Self-Teacher” by E. Hall Downes is a masterpiece of clarity and thoroughness in presenting the Sims System to beginners and aver- age players. Though it consists of only 64 pages, it very clearly outlines the main points through the method of teaching which has made Mr. Downes so well known throughout the country. No less than 460 test hands are given, enabling the reader to verify his knowl- edge as he proceeds, since the answer to every one of them is given at the back of the book. This excellent teach- ing manual bears Mr. Sims’ personal endorsement. It is published by Bridge Publications, Inc., 318 Oliver Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. Price $1.00. new “garland.”