The sun., 1916-01-23
LESSONS OF SCORES
AT ROYAL AUCTION
Remarkable Swings in the
Crescent Tournament at
Duplicate.
MOOT POINTS DECIDED

The Whist club has lately made sonle
Interesting decisions on poin's .na
continually coming up In play ana mas
sent them to THE SuN. through ite chair-
cr., Milton e. Work. for puhiicatlon
for the benefit Of auction players AT
large. r,. .,.r
e W ". states this case The dealer
p starts with bid Of one spade.
A and Y say. no bid; says
pass," Under the impression tnat . has
hid hearts Il says two spades a'nousn
his attention is called 10 the 'a'' Una.
no one has oyercallcd his hrst bid. ms
onponents insist that the declaration ie
nov two spades. which they are at
Uber,v to double or overcall, as II re-
opens the bidding.
Here is the decision OF the committee
'sThe laws provide that the declaration
becomes final when II Is paeseu oy
three players in succession. In the case
cited this happens after the declaration
Of one spade. 1t having become nnai.
Il 10 not In the power OF the ofis'ha'
'declarer to alter II"
This is not the first time the situa-
tion described has arisen In play me
writer was present not long a-o whon
an original bid of one club was passed
nv three PLAYERS and the declarer then
remarked that he guessed he should
have bid two clubs. whercupon ms OPP
ponents made him bid IT, and his part
ner went two no trurps. risk he Was
not willing to take on a bid or one
club only.
Here is Il rather con- mon case. with
peculiar ending. r. II. gives he tarts
this way: Il is the dealer "A I'd starts
with two diamonds Not noticing the
"two," a. sitting second hand says two
clubs Tn. dealers partner Y, says
'sNot enough but | don't want to make
II three. bid two hearts The op-
ponents insist that Y hevinG called at
ten,ion to the insufficient bid IT must first
he made sufficient. and Y must then
bid three hearts to overcall it,
The decision OF the committee - that
the expression "Not enough simply
calls attention to the fact that the IL
regularity has been noticed but j. not
q demand that II he corrected Y *
not bound TO exact the penalty. as the
laws give him tn. option of accepting
the bid as regular and either passing
or overcaling 1t. Y is therefore within
his rights in bidding two hearts
Here is an almost similar case: The
dealer. z. bids two diamonds and \ over
calls him second hand with TWO clubs.
r. who is As partner, says: Tree
clubs are necessary" says. ~ refuse
10 exact the penalty, and bid two hearts"
Two questions are involved here: Does
the bid OF two hearts stand. and Is there
any penalty against As partner for
calling attention to an error made by
his own side?
The committee decides that Bs re-
mark does not subject him 10 any pen
atty. II \ did not take his partners
hint and increase the CLUB declaration
before bid the two hearts. then the
two heart bid must stand
II has often been question as to
whether the partner could correct an
insufficient bid. SO as to avoid the p"r-
atty of being Ilims.,: barred from bid
ding II the intervening player should
correct II and pass.
SOME DUPLICATE FACTS.
The very ably managed game that
took place at the Crescent Athletic Club
OIL January II under the direction 90
Chairman W. -. Scsur OF the tourui-
msnt committee was one .: the DloSi
interesting duplicate contests to date
and proved to be productive ot some
markable facts-facts that should give
pause to overcOuhdent players who
imagine that between equals results
should be about alike.
Thei" Were twcutE->iN dco,s PLAY cd.
the total score on each pair OF deals
played before changing adycrsd:!, ,
being handed TO the othc'a scorer and
entered opposite t,e names Of the players
who made the los 81 gain.
The result VAS the possibility of maxi
ing number oi compi'is oaN which led
20 the regret taat II had not been AS
feasible 10 record the final declarations
is well as the S'orr. An IISl 'ction OF
the table oc totai scores Will probably
astonish those vino do not realize the
big swings that are continually occur
ring at the bridge table,
The T. ana W hands We're the stronge-
oil through Thu following table show $
the highest scores made on eac1 pair oi
deals all through the tournament. IL the
hiGhes score mad. by the y and ;
players at any table WIS, lei VI say 20J
the lowest score on the same deals ma!
have been a plus score for the l. and "
players. IL this score is i2I we get q
difference or swing Of 632 points or
those two deals alone.
IL all tine plus scores are on one sid;
the swing must be the difference he
tween the bes: and the worit of those
scores. Suppose io9 is the best scor,
and lJ4 the worst the la must have
been the smallest loss for the other side
% we call the y and $ hands ljl minus
and deduct Il from the +09 made by I
and W. leaving swing 81 80. "a
shown by deals and s, on which no y
and s pair made a plus.
The column to the right shows tho eX
treme differences or swings on each pal!
OF deals.