New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-11
AUCTION UP TO DATE
The Modern Bidding Game-lts
Simplifications.

''- ssmo. ~. 81. Chicago. A G. McCurs 4 GO.
MODERN AUCTION IL TEN Lessons. BY
Grace q Montgomery. S-mo. ID I'll. ls4. Charles
Scrtrer's sons
NEGLECTED POINTS OF AUCTION BRIDGE
By Carl Ehlermann. r. s2mo ~. %. haTef
a Bros
THE 1919 RULES AND LAWS or AUCTION
BRIDGE By Wynne Ferguson. S.mo, Do 50.
published By the author New York. SIS Broad
way.
It isa striking proof Of the simplif-
cation which auction bridge has under
gone in the last two years that Mr.
Clark is able 20 compress his admi-
rable little treatise into 100 small
pages. In fact, the analysis OF the
modern bidding game covers only
thirty-eight Of them, the rest Of the
volume being taken up with a reprint
Of the 1915 playing laws Of the New
York Whist Club.
Auction stood in great need of
adjudication. The original low spade
bids, with their complicated conven-
tions, were an incumbrance on the
game, because they were out OF har-
mony with it3 true character. They
have been quickly swept away IN the
course of its development. The nullo
bids. introduced for time, have been
discarded for the same reason. Or
binary nullos and nullos with the
dealers hand exposed (nullo ouvert)
have their place in the master game
OF skat, where they give bidder with
weak cards an additional defence
against overwhelming strength and are
needful check against the "maurer'
(the man who underbids good cards
in order to trap overcontident oppo-
nents). Since skat is game OF mani
fold complications and infinite variety,
the nulo plays fit into its theory. But
since auction is in its nature game
OF quick action within narrow limits, II
has grown steadily away-to It's own
betterment-from the sophistlcations
which were unfortunately folsted upon
1t at the beginning.
Presupposing knowledge of the rules
Of play-which in themselves are much
simpler than the rules of old bridge
whist-the theory Of bidding can now
be reduced to very elemental terms.
A few directions for conveying rudi-
mentary information 20 a partner
while declarations are being made are
sufficient. Everything else depends on
the experience, balance and judgment
of the player. The soul of modern
bridge IS action. Mr.. Clark's little
| book recognizes this changed quality OF
the game-its approximation toward
the philosophy Of poker. 1t can there
fore be commended as a thoroughly
sound study Of up-to-date auction.
In Mr.. Metcalfe's treatise the prin-
ciple of simplifcation is pushed to an
extreme which will startle the more
conservative school of expounders and
players. The author IS evidently a
Westerner, and his theories suggest
another clash of opinion between the
! East and the West lie wants TO cast
out bodily all "informatory" bids of
| the sort which we're formerly associ-
ated with the low spade openings. Both
| Mr.. Clark and Miss COR is it Mrs. p
/ Grace G. Montgomery, representing
| New York authority, indorse conven-
tional opening bids of one trick in
clubs and diamonds, not with the idea
OF playing either Of those minor suits,
/ but OF indicating 10 a partner that the
bidder holds ace and king, or ace, queen
and jack in the suit named. The part
ner may then change to a heart or a
| spade. or to no trumps, knowing what
two high cards in the dealers hand he
may count on.
But TO Dir. Metcalfe's radical temper
this savors too much of unreformed
auction. lie says: THE question of
ethics must be considered in connec-
ton with the new conventions. The
low spade bids when spades counted
two were abolished because major
ity of the players considered the high
spade bids two or three tricks in this
suit nsportsmanlike; therefore they
should have no substitutes. Bids of
one club or one diamond, to indicate in
a general way what the two spade bid
formerly meant, should not be toler-
/ ated and players using such bids
would be barred from many of the
best clubs. When the dealer bids
either diamonds or clubs, his partner
should be able to support such bid,
especially as a far greater number of
games are won with these suits as
trumps than under the old regime"
Mr.. Metcalfe wants TO bar all in
formatory bids but two When the
dealer has called a suit and the second
player has a good no-trump hand, ex-
cept in the suit named the latter is
advised to bid two clubs as a notice to
his partner TO take him out. Mr.. Clark
and Miss Montgomery advise doubling
in this case, but Mr.. Metcalfe objects
to doubling because it reverses the
ordinary meaning of double. The
other convention he would retain is
doubling a no-trump declaration by an
adversary when the doubler has three
strong suits and poor cards in the
suit named. The double would compel
the partner TO bid his longest suit, no
matter what II was. Mr.. Metcalfe de-
sires 10 free the game as far as DOS
sible from mechanical shackles. He is
little ahead of its present progress.
But logic IS on his side, and auction
may gradually attain to the degree Of
severity and simplicity which he ad-
vocates.
Miss Montgomery wrote a couple Of
books on auction when IL was in It's
earlier stages, and her new volume is a
reconstruction 70 cover the recent
changes in theory and in the rules. She
still has n friendly feeling FOR the older
game and its complicated bidding con-
ventions, and expresses regret in her
preface that "the elimination Of the
lower value Of the spade suit, and with
Il the informatory spade bids, have
(sic) left the game singularly void Of
declarations by which an assisting
hand can be shown" With this lack
IN view. she adds. 81 have explained
at length the two differences TO be
drawn from the original Ono Club also