Evening star., 1931-12-12
Supreme Test of Technique.

! Supreme Test of Technique.
The supreme test OF the technique of
a bridge player Is not how he plays with
| good cards, but how he plays his bad
one, the timeliness of his retreats and
! the extent to which he saves his troops
| in adversely. A mans character is re-
| vealed by his reaction to bad breaks
| in life, and in bridge his technical skill
as a player is revealed by his reaction
| to a long run of bad cards.
| Every master bridge player has dis
| covered that fortune is beautiful
| smiling damsel To court her is pleas
| ure. Adversely is hag. She cannot
be frowned away. She must be cajoled
and petted with smiles or she viii
| plague your soul.
The reason bad players crack under
| the strain of hard luck is that they be-
! come submerged in a wave of self pity.
| They find TIT their delusion Of
grandeur no longer buoys them up and
| that their inferiority complex is sink
| ing them into the depths of despair. To
cast off this dreadful weight they grasp
! at Straws They get angry. object, ap-
! peal and bcker with opponents. They
! fight the cards. They seek Scape-
| goat of atonement to carry their sins
into the wilderness and the goat is
usually the partner.
Should Examine Himself.
The man who loses patience when
! things break badly loses patience with
| himself. In bridge he should examine
+ himself and his technique and not the
methods of either his opponents or his
| partner.
In the three preceding sessions of
| the Culbertson-Lenz bridge tournament
and the early rubbers of last nights
! session, Mrs. Culbertson and I had
ample opportunity to test this phase OF
our technical equipment. l made
copious notes on every deal We spent
large portion of Yesterday going over
note1 of the previous days. We ex-
amined each bid and each play care
| fully, We found to our satisfaction
| that the many mistakes We had made
had come, fortunately for us, at
moments when they did little damage,
and that also fortunately for us, some
Of our opponents slips had counted in
our favor
We came to the conclusion that we
were far, far away from our goal OF
! perfection, but we had one stimulating
| consolation: in these three days of ad-
I versity we had played the best losing
cards we knew how; we had smiled
and laughed ct the bad breaks we had
borne our bridge depression cheerfully.
Opponents Good Sportsmen.
We are also consoled by the realiza-
/ tion that Mr.. Lenz and Mr. Jacoby
are good sportsmen. They are gentle
men and there is certainly nothing
soft in the opposition they have offered
us. We have no reason to suspect
| that when the breaks are with us and
against our opponents the game will
change its complexion. 1t should still
| be an agreeable contest of skill when
| the hag Of adversely replaces the smil-
| ing maiden Fortune as kibitzer on
| their game.
Mrs. Culbertson and I had an inter-
| esting experience with deal No | in
| the second rubber, in which bid by
me, intended to intimidate Mr.. LEM
and keep him from bidding three no.
! trump, was converted into a five-dia-
mond declaration by my partner and in
the play resulted in making seven-odd.
! Even the small slam, however, is not
biddable, With a club lead, six con-
tract would be set one trick.
The hand was as follows East
dealer. Neither side vulnerable.
NORTH-MR. LEM.
SIS 3 2
H.-K QS75
D.-J 3
C.-8 ga
WEST-MR.. Gull FAST-MRs. Gull
BERTsON. BERTsoN.
s.4 S.-A Q 10 s75
H.-10 3 2 H-A
DIX @ 10 9 - D.-A 7s
CT C.-1O S
SOUTH-MR. JACOBY.
SIX J6
HI "a
D.-5
CA K QJ93
Ruff Leads to Slam.
Mrs. Culbertson opened the bidding
with one spade, oyer-called with two
no trump by Mr.. Jacoby. I bid three
/ diamonds, to interfere with the bidding
/ processes of our opponents. NV part
ner, upon reValuing her hand in the
light OF my diamond bid, found sufficient
| playing tricks to take me to five. Mr.
Lenz opened with the king of hearts
and by ruffing one heart and setting
! up the spades l took all the tricks.
An opening two bid by MIR. Jacoby
was headed straight for a slam on deal
No. 2. On rubber No 90, when 10 de-
cided to do something about II and
made beautiful defensive bid of three
diamonds, which + In my turn, sup