The sun., 1916-09-10
WOMEN'S POOR PLAY
AT ROYAL AUCTION
Habitual Overlooking and
Failure to Make Contract
Chief Causes.
By r. F. FOSTER.

" ~ AVs |
A correspondent Of an investigating
turn Of mind who Is In the habit OF
playing at a nan club In the winter
but cuts into . great many rubbers
with women in the summer writes to ask
II others have noted this distinctive
feature about the woman's game:
They require more deals to hnish a rub
Der on the average. and the totals are
always much larger than In the mems
games. The reason. he finds. Is the
failure Of 70 many contracts and the
piling up Of SO many penalties.
Unfortunately he did not keep any
exact record Of the results Of two
months play. OF the figures might be
compared with statistics from various
clubs in which the play is confined ex-
clusively to men. There might not be
such a great difference after all. except
In the best Of clubs. whore auction has
been reduced 10 a science.
Tit fact nat wome are more prone
70 pile UP penalties has long been known
to close observers. Some attribute this
to the restraining influence Of = ccnsid-
cradle stake when men play. while the
majority Of women play for rum. As
THE suN's correspondent points out, the
reason for the longer rubbers il the
greater number Of hands required to
play them. and the reason for this again
Is because 50 many OF the hands make
no progress toward winning the game.
resulting only in penalties and honor
But simply calling attention to the
facts will not improve matters. and as
all women are Just as anxious TO play
the game as II should be played. one
must point out the fundamental error
that is back of both these defects. Why
Is It that women are penalixed more
than men,?
There might be three solutions. One
would be that they habitually overbid
their hands another that they failed TO
make the contract when 1t was in the
cards. and stili another might b. that
they are better in playing against the
declaration than In handling the dummy.
Perhaps each OF these might be part OF
the explanation. hut the first Is undoubt-
eddy the chief contributing cause Of the
greater frequency OF penalties in won.
ems games than in mems.
There are two ways OF overriding a
hand One Is the original bid and the
ether Is the assist. Any person who ha
had much experience in playing with
the general run Of women bridge player.
will probably agree that while bidding
suits without the tops is a prolific source
OF loss II Is nothing compared to assist
ing the partner with hands that do no
Justify IT. One OF the greatest dificultie,
a teacher nnds II TO impress upon thu
pupil that II there are a couple Of trick,
In h third hand they have been In
cluded in the dealers bid. II seems e
be a weakness with some players. womei
especially. to bid upon their own han
and TO take II for granted tina, the part
ner has don the same.
When the dealer bids q heart and sec
ond hand a spade. II the third han ha
Il couple Of probable tricks. perhaps onl,
one Oh t1cIU n CeTthlUty, sic VIII DTOUlDt
~ assist the hearts. II this bid be ana
lyzed 1t will he seen that the third han,
must he assuming that the dealers ow'
: cards were good for at least six trick,
, and that any tricks the partner find
can be added to them.
| But every player knows that here ar
very few hands hat are good for six q
seven tricks upon which the dealer wi
start with n bid of one. There ar
. countless hands which present perfect
sound original declarations that are nc
good for more than -four tricks. or Az
. at the most,
II the contract Is to make sever
where are the other tricks TO com
e from II they are not in the partner
v hand? As It Is a legitimate speculate
n that the partner will have r couple {
q ! tricks. perhaps more. these original bio
!, on four or five are perfectly proper Il
u the dealer. Rut II these tricks in II
partners hand are discounted by II
GLIDING them in the original bid, and II
d third hand assists. or increases the cot
v tract. on those cards. that is s!mpl
$ bidding the same cards twice. II
counting an ace for two tricks. when
cannot possibly take more han one,
When we come 10 ,ombine n system
original bids Whlch the naHds 40 N
. Justify with a system OF assisting biz
on cards which are more than needed
i help out the original bid. we are layir
= the foundation for a succession OF su'
r stantiai penalties.
Il The errors IN assisting. which are n
by any means confined to the women
rubber, may he roughly divided into ~
classes: One IL assisting on winnir
cards that are already included in Il
@ original bid the other Is assisting {
q trumps.
z Here are a few hands. gathered fro
various games played during the pa
hummer by mixed companies. whit
-, show the manner in which these crro
=. affect the result. and d to the SEQ
above the line all the time. instead
~ toward game: