Judge — April 1934 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

DEAL Month Fo Edited by Philip Hal Sims » of Contract Bridge JUDGE—APRIL, 1934 Editorial S THIS is written I am nearing the end of a lecture t in with Mr. E. Hall Dow who ranks as ne of the foremost exponents of Con- tract. We have traveled for many wecks over a large part of these United States any Such a trip as Iam about to complete, appearing before la enthusiastic audiences, was nece interested and ry for me to realize the tremendous and still growing popularity of Contract. It seems almost impossible that the entire country could adopt a new game in the relatively short time Contract has been played. But it is a fact. I think the principal reason for the rapid spread of this successor to Auction is that Con- tract is a sporting game. And _ this clearly implies that people do not want a yard-stick for their games. I am de- lighted to have encountered so many thousands gf bridge lovers who have gotten beyond the limitations of the early fixed systems. N JUNE representatives of fifteen or more European countries will assem- ble at Vienna in an international com- petitive bridge tournament. In Si her or October the winners of this t nament will meet a selected American team for the world’s championship title. The American team will go to the other side for this match, which will be played under the sponsorship of the Interna- tional Bridge League and the American Bridge League. The sound method of selecting an American team gives added interest to this announcement. During a week to be announced later, the American Bridge League will hold a tournament in which nation wide representation of bridge players will be encouraged. Each team entered will play a match with every other team, The team winning the greatest number of matches will be des- ignated as the American team to com- pete for the world’s championship title. —P. H. No. 2665 N) Theory of Opening No Tru By Derr HIS month I will discuss some ex- amples of second round bidding by a Sims player who has originally made an opening bid of one no trump with a aled s in his hand. Holding the following hand, Spades, K 10 Hearts, K 9 x Diamonds, A J 10 Clubs, AK J x x You have bid no trump rather than Club, because your hand is of the clarer type. Your partner’s response is two spades. What treatment will you now select? Your partner has bid the suit for which you have the least support. At the same time this response has not re- moved from your hand one of its ¢ tial weaknesses, the dubious protection in hearts. It may be advisable to sign off this hand short of game, and this sign-off might be safer in clubs than in spades, if only because your side is likely to gain a trick on the opening lead if you are the declarer, and perhaps on some subsequent lead if your hand is concealed. You should therefore bid three clubs, hoping that your partner, having something in his hand other than length in spades, can take the strain and bid three no trumps or four spades. However, he is at liberty to pass this bid on some such holding as, Spades, QJ x x x Hearts, x x Diamonds, Q x x Clubs, x x x Take away one of his small clubs and convert it into a small heart, and he would now prefer his own sign-off, and so by bidding three spades, knowing that vour support for his spades is better than his support for your’clubs. Not having spades with him for no trump game purposes, you should now pass. You have thus arrived at the safest con- 19 long cor en- p Bids k J. Wernher tract on the hand after having explored several alternatives. Note that this open- ing hand is distinctly a weak one for the no trump bid. Change the club hold- ing to A, K, Q, x x, and the bidding would go: one no trump; two spades; two no trump; three spades; three no trump; and it would offer a fine gamble even if game did not come off. Prob- ably you need only the jack of hearts in the dummy outside of the spade suit as shown in order to make three no trumps, even if the club suit should not break. Give the responding hand the queen of hearts in addition to the spade suit as shown, or substitute the king of diamonds, and the bidding would go: one no trump; two spades; three clubs; three no trump. Change the responding hand to, Spades, AJ x xxx Hearts, J x Diamonds, K x x x Clubs, x and the bidding should go: one no trump; two spades; three clubs; four spades. This is obviously a strain-taker and not a slam try, so original bidder passes. To accept this strain-taker jump to four as a slam basis, opener needs some solidity in the red suits: say K Q xand A Q x. I want you to realize how important a part in the bidding the responding hand can take, even when very poorly provided with face cards. Let us take the same opening hand and assume that the first response is two. no trump. There is now no need to bid the club suit, because the hand's chances are plainly in no trump. Your partner has told you he believes you will get into his hand twice. What better pros- pects can you ask for a game in no trump, even if his response was made on absolutely minimum values? For every time that you go down a comicbooks.com