The sun., 1912-08-11
BIDDING WEAK SUITS
At ROYAL AUCTION
Plan May Succeed at Bridge,
but Often Fails With
New Count.
MISLEADING THE PARTNER
Surprises for Players Who Fol.
low Old Tactics-Bids
Of No Trumps.

judging from the letters that con.
stantly come TO THE SUN from various
parts Of the country and the reports from
various clubs there are still a great many
persons among the average players who
persist In bidding on what are classed as
weak suits In royal auction. They say
that such makes turned out all right at
bridge and that II they are not all right
In auction II must he because the other
side has the better hands and In that
case the other side will want TO play
them.
This is only partly true. however. be-
cause there are many situations In which
the other side would prefer penalties TO
points below the line and there are many
more In which they do not know how
strong their hands are In about half the
cases In which one side goes down for u
heavy penalty on small bid II will be
found that the opponents had the cards to
60 game had they but known It.
The objection to the bid on a weak suit
usually put forward Is Its misleading
character. but II the bidder Is left to play
II no one IL misled. and az rule 1t goes
through all right. The only exceptions.
say the advocates Of these weak bids. are
the cases in which the partner has \
speculative no trumper and overestimates
the value OF his hand on account Of the
original bid. He should know. they think.
that the suit declared is not all aces and
kings and should make due allowance
for II.
A brief examination Of the beliefs Of
those that bid upon long weak suits at
auction will usually disclose the fact that
they do not like no trumpers and are in
clined to think them unnecessary under
the new count.
There will be no more no trumpers."
was the first cry when this new count
was proposed and for long time such
was the belief Of the average player.
Even now one may hear the opinion ex-
pressed that the no trumper has been al
most eliminated from the game or that
at best It occupies q very unimportant
place. That this Is not true to any ex-
tent was shown by statistics published by
The SuN not long ago, which went to
show that the diminution In the number
OF no trump calls by the dealer was very
slight most Of the new count declarations
being borrowed from the hands that
would have been suit declarations under
the old count.
A correspondent in Chicago sends the
results Of some experiments with average
trump declarations. such as would have
been thought perfectly proper In the
bidding against these weak calls Is equally
at fault In many cases. the lesson TO be
drawn from them is still there.
The result Of this investigation seems TO
show that II Is not only in the case or
the partners holding possible no
;rumper that the weakness OF the dealers 3
declaration was at fault. bu, that 1t often
led to overcalling In the suits when the
partner felt II his duty to shift.
The dealer having declared. his part
ner naturally counts on him for certain
amount OF support, II he shifts he hopes
TO find In the dealers hand some winning
ca rds to help out his suit Of trumps, Just
as much as he looks for those winning
cards to help out q no trumper. when he
has one. or something that looks like IT.
A suit declared by the dealer IL often
relied on by good players to give them
dlscards OF losing cards in other suits.
bids q heart and Y has none. but he
holds six good spades and two losing
clubs. II he can get rid OF those clubs
on his partners heart, he has good
pla ying hand. butsif he has to ruff every
heart his partner leads he Is very weak,
Here il a hand In which this situation
comes up: