The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-05-04
-V-s-s.--s.--s-s
| EASY LESSONS IN |
! AUCTION BRIDGE !
BY PAUL II. SEYMOUR
Author of "Highlights Auction Bridge"
:opyrikht. By Hoyle. Jr.l

Article Twenty-Five.
Declarer's Play of No Trump
Holding Up An Ace.
IF SENIORS opening lead is low in
his own suit and declarer holds
only the Ace and few small ones
in his two hands, the question Of
taking or passing the first trick be-
comes important. Many players who
are in the habit of holding up an
Ace in such case seem to be unable
to give a reason for it or to know
when it should be done and when
not. There is just one reason for
such play, and that Is to extract
all of juniors cards of that suit so
that later in the game declarer may
be able to finesse towards him know
ing that if the finesse fails he cannot
put senior in the lead to make the
established cards of his suit
From the application of the rule
of eleven and the fall of the cards
on the first trick declarer nearly al
ways can tell how many cards of
that suit are held by junior, and if he
can exhaust him by passing a trick
or two he should try to play his Ace
on the trick upon which junior plays
his last card However, if, from the
number of cards held in his two hands,
declarer is quite sure that he cannot
hold off long enough to exhaust junior
there is no use to hold up the Ace at
all and it should be played on the
first trick. For instance, suppose that
senior leads the three, dummy has the
ten and deuce (two-spot), and de-
clarer the Ace, six and five. Senior
must be leading from a four-card suit
because the three is his lowest (the
deuce is in dummy. Therefore junior
must have four cards and holding up
the Ace will do no good.
Another case in which it is useless
to hold up the Ace is where there are
no illnesses which declarer cares to
take towards junior, so that he feels
confident that he can keep junior out
of the lead
When declarer obtains the lead in a
no trump, If he still has a stopper in
the suit opened by the adversaries,
the first and most important rule for
him to follow Is to hold that stopper
until he has developed and established
his own suits. He should as a rule
start upon the suit which gives prom
Use of the greatest number of tricks.
If he can establish and run FIVE
card suit it will compel the adver-
will injure their hands but will give
declarer valuable information about
their holdings upon which to decide
about finessing In other suits.
long unestablished suit should be
opened before taking two or three
sure tricks in another suit because
the latter procedure always sets up
one or two tricks in the adyersaries'
hands, and this should not be done
until after they have been compelled
to give up their entry cards For in
stance, when holding four cards Of a
suit in dummy and three in his own
hand, including Ace, King, Queen, de-
clarer may be tempted to run that
suit in the hope of having dummy's
fourth card become the thirteener.
For this to happen however, each adj
versary must hold just three cards
and the chances are that one will
hold two and the other four, so that
after three rounds of it one adver-
sary will hold good card. Always
leave such suit until the latter part
of the hand.
If when declarer obtains the lead
he still has command or stopper for
every suit, he may plan his illnesses
freely in either direction; but IL
either adversary has established his
suit it would be very dangerous to
finesse towards him and the entire
play of the hand might have to be
altered.
For the declarer, the application of
the rule of eleven and deductions
which may be made from it and the
Size of seniors fourth best lead are
very important. If the lead is as high
as the six or seven, and declarer
and dummy have two or three higher
ones the number held by junior will
be very small, and as declarer knows
that senior does not hold these honors
(from which he would have led one)
he can usually tell quite accurately
what cards junior holds. He also can
often estimate the length of seniors
suit If the lead is deuce 1t must
be from fOur-card suit; or If all
the cards but one below the one led
are visible it must be from either
four or fve-card suit.
If seniors first lead is high declarer
should at once try to visualize his
hand by considering what combina-
lions would justify that lead. For
instance, suppose that senior leads
Queen, dummy exposes the ten and two
small ones, and declarer holds the
King and several small ones. The
only proper Queen lead combinations
are Ace, Queen, Jack and others with
Jul q VI lHC up VI luIcc-
card sequence. Since dummy has the
ten, the lead cannot be the latter COM
bination and so must be from the
former. Thus declarer has obtained
valuable information not only re-
garding this suit but also about the
remainder of seniors hand.
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