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

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

—— Judge Unive Bridg Auction, and Coutract ROFESSOR L. C. URQUHART is the head of sity. His principal avocation for a long time has been the s Ihupressions of a Sims Teachers’ Convention By L. C. Urquhart His unt structural engineering department of Cornell udy and play of various systems of rrsity duties have not permitted him, until recently, to engage in frequent tournament play. He is unbiased in his opinion as to which of the accepted systems of Con- tract is the best, and his judgment as to how any one of them should be taught is of unquestioned value — Editor of Judge. HE next time Philip Hal Sims holds a Teachers’ Conference, I ami going to be in the front row. t September I went to such a con- rence, going rather reluctantly at the behest of my better half (who is not my favorite partner nor am I hers) with the g that it was probably some sort of racket, but that I was willing to try anything once. I was convinced that my study of the various books on Cc ct me more about the game than lectures by persons, who, though they were top- notch players, were probably not teach- ers by pre ion. I had expected to hear a few scattered remarks by Mr. Sims, who would then, no doubt, retire to his home and leave the rest of us to discuss or interpret his book to the best of our ability. What actually took place was far d ferent. In the first place, there was no racket. No fee was charged for the con- vention nor for the teachers’ examir tion, nor for the certificates where awarded. The whole week was splendid- ly organized into five days with two sessions of lectures 1 discussions in each, and a duplicate game every eve- ning. One of Mr. Sims’ assistants, Sir Derrick Wernher, is a natural teacher, while another, Mr. John Rau, has a great gift for clear and concise lectur- ing; and a third, Mr, Russell J. Bald- win, gave excellent demonstrations of the laws of probability in card distribu- tion thorough instruction in tourna: ment managing and scoring. Dominating the Conference, however, was P. Hal Sims himself, striding through the rooms as he lectured, fol- lowed by his Great Dane and his little Pekingese, or interpolating clarif and constructive remarks during the le: tures of | nd the dise: which followed. His fund of common-sense comparisons with ord nary episodes of daily life seemed inex haustible and very aptly served to drive home important features of his talks. or did his day end with the working He took part in all of the eve- ning games. Every candidate for a certificate played at least once with Mr. Sims and had several opportunities to play against him. Once he played in a Mitchell-Howell game with his wife— Dorothy of the Psychics—and on two other occasions with players of national repute, ten or fifteen of whom were pres- t each session, scattered through the ions. experience of actual and frequent Ms S associates a sions sessions play against such expert competition was another very instructive and interesting feature of the Confere The examination, given on the last day, was thorough, and covered prac- tically the whole system. To do a good paper one must have absorbed the theory as a whole and not merely be able to count the spots of various assortm of cards. Since everyone had realized that Mr. Sims had a deep personal in- terest in them during the whole week, and since they knew that Mr. Sims him- self would read each and every examina- tion paper, th ce. ¢ who were later to re ceive the highly prized certificates thought of themselves not merely as so many names added to a list of “Sims Teachers,” but as actual associates of his in the furtherance of good Contract playing. inally, when all was over on Satur- day evening, I am sure that everyone left with a deep sense of gratitude to Mr. Sims and his assistants, Whether they were convinced that the Sims sys- tem is the best of all systems or whether they felt that it was just another fine and logical method of playing the game, they were sure that they could both teach and play with more intelligence and more enjoyment. Sims Theory of Opening No Trump Bids T us review, with you as the open- ng bidder. You have bid one no trump and your partner has bid two ina suit. If that is a major suit, you do not yet know whether it is a four card suit or a five card suit, but if it is a four card suit, everything will be nicely cleared up on the next round if you now bid two no trumps. Your part- ner, if unable to rebid his suit, will bid three no trumps. He has the two en- tries which you expect from him as a justification for bidding a four card suit at all. If he bids a minor suit you know that it is a five card suit or longer. If, over your two no trump rebid, he now By Derrick J. Wernher bids three in his suit, he is warning you that his hand does not contain two en- tries for no trumps; he is saying that, so far as he knows, the safety of the hand rests in a contract of three in his suit. Do not disregard this warning lightly. Pass his rebid, unless you feel very con- fident of having at least a good play to make three no trumps. If your partner’s suit is a major suit and you have fair support in it, such as K 10 x, you may well decide that he will have a good play to make four in that suit. It is often good judgment to raise him to four in his major suit and make an optimistic try for a game in that declara- 19 tion rather than in three no trumps. You know that he is likely to lose two trump tricks, but if you think there will be finesses or other plays to lose not more than one trick in the off suits, give him the raise. NDER what conditions should you decide to gamble on three no trumps instead of passing your partner's sign-off of three in his suit? The time to do this is when you hold that suit very strongly with him, so that you will have entries to dummy in that very suit, even though probably not in any other suit, You can visualize a comicbooks.com