The sun., 1913-10-19
STUDIES IN NULLOS
AT ROYAL AUCTION
In the West They Are irving a
Plan Of Exchanging
the Hands.
EORl TESTED N PLAY
New Bid Welcomed by Many a,
Tending TO Eliminate
Element Of Luck.
THEORY TESTED ~ PLAY

4 IN, rul;o hids become u-urc wId.l,
known they naturally call forth varying
| expressions OF opinion as TO their futura.
many persons being ALREADY Engaged IN
, looking along the lines of l.as; resistance
with n view 10 making a guess a, wh.re
tho game Of auction Will eventually LAID
l.. : Hart. Jr.. Of Duncaaaon. IA. says
| The Introduction of the rullo problem
! is the beginning of n thorny path for the
solver. l1e Will now have frequent u.c
| for the very expressive verb. to duck.
| belicv" nuilos n splendid addition to the
game bid that requires as much scicn-
t.ilc handling az a 10 trumper.
\. Mckinnon Of Seattle. speaking of tho
objection 10 the nulo bids. says: 1T is
that bridge players have so long played
the one sided. positive or trick winning
game tina; they arc almost wholly unap-
preciat!ve Of the equally important mega
t.v" or trick losing game
e. r. Johnson Of Hartford says: "Th.
nullo hid presents some very Interesting
| situations. and whether nullos over pr-
come part OF TIVE game or no., they viii
furnish the foundation for some ha
problems"
II. T. SomArs o. Washington say !:
Nothing has brought such relief to our
little circle OF bridge players as the nlllo
bid. The croakers who werc continually
complaining about their poor cards. who
could never make bid and los, three rub
bers out OF FIVE as regular thing, and
who have now been given ample oppor-
tunity to bid on those poor hands have
suddenly discovered that they hold hands
vel! up to the average. or above it, As
they no longer have any excuse on the
subject OF luck in the cards. We have long
and peaceful sessions. Hard as It comes
to some Of these chronic losers. they now
have TO acknowledge tina, no matter what
sort Of cards they hold they do not know
how to bid on them, nullos or no nullos,
and still less how TO play them. We all
take on our hats To the nullos and say:
For this relief much thanks
One enthusiastic whist player sees In
the nullo the first signs Of the promised
Land; the return to tho good old game Of
duplicate. Just for practice at first and
10 see how the new bids worked" he says.
we had little party AT my house and
agreed to play every hand a nullo so as
to get at tho value Of an average hand in
that declaration.
I'VE soon found that Ions SUI, without
the deuce was dangerous and that the
top Of four card suit was a bad opening
'Cavendish' hands were usually failure
and one or two very short suits with at
least one long one were essential TO sue
cess. DiscardinE seemed to he the great
art.
We tTitu INV 'uk diN'l kHdA WIN
a set of duplicate trays'th have not bec1
used for years. and the players who had
been acknowledged as the better bridge
players and who had been fine whist play
ers In the old days won out every time
when they played nullos We tried II On
whist lines. without the exposed dummy,
but that game was failure. When We
played duplicate. every deal was rullo
player to the left OF the dealer to lead"
nm 90 dical n
comes from the West, where II appears
they have been playing nullos for some
time. but with the innovation OF eXchang-
Ing the hands Of the declarer OF a rullo
and his partner. leaving the lead where
| II was. at the left Of tho actual declarer.
The theory Of the exchange Is that the
person who makes the nullo declaration
| has the small cards and the comparatively
safe hand In all suits His partner may
have some high or dangerous cards. and
II In important to conceal that fact from
the adversaries. II possible. II the nullo
declarer plays his own cards the safe
hand Is the concealed hand. and the hand
with the holes In II II laid on the table
and In Immediately exposed To attack
In order to avoid this. which Is a ris',
| tho nullo oicder now has to run. the cards
| on which the nulio In declared are sorted
| and laid on tha table as a dummy as
| soon az the first card Is led. and the de-
| clarer take6 tne cAIos tnat were ucHH 10
| his partner and holds them UP In the con-
| cesled hand.
While this sounds We'll in theory, It is
| difficult to see what great difference il
! could make I'm practice. When a single
player IL opposed TO two adversarles and
| there is no exposed hand the advantage
| OF the concealed hand is apparent if his
| adversaries lead \ suit on which he can
| discard. and their inability to tell how
| many Of a suit are to come Is increased
| by the cards laid away In the skat.
| But this advantage n only In ganes IN
which single trick sets the contract. and
THE "DRlDGE BOARD"