Evening star., 1933-08-21

ing always that two OF the Responder
tricks consist Of ace and ace or eiSe
ace and king queen. When strong
enough, opener bids the SIX nmSe1,
when supplying only nall trlek aDove
the minimum or when sure tnat 1our
Is safe. but that six may be doubtful un-
less responder had some secondary
values in reserve over and above the
promised three preliminary tricks,
opener passes the decision by oloong
four no trumps to convey exactly TINS
information. We are still assuming
that opener cannot bid four-card suit
in accepting the slam-try. This oe-
velopment will be discussed later.
When Opener Has Three Aces.
When opener has three aces and his
partner makes this slam-try, feel tnat
with nothing in reserve OF three and q
half primary tricks and no unprotected
hold such as 10 or K ne snoulo
still accept the slam-try by virtue OF
his third ace. This is in itself q kind
of reserve value because Of the com
plete control of the time factor which
it provides. 1t Is now known that the
partners together hold four aces, with.
In addition. a half trick in openers
hand, and in responders hand at least
one king queen combination plus tnlrd
trick. This Is potential slam material,
needing only a jack here or there 10
make the slam dependent solely on
fnesse or on the even 3-3 spit OF sut.
For instance, with
s;EA.s sLAA1s 6fft 70 20
II the bidding went one no trump oy
me, three no trumps, I would bid 1ouf
no trumos. MY partner should now say
to himself: He has something in re-
serve of three and half primary tricks.
Either he has four primary tricks or
he has three aces and a king or else
ace, ace. ace-queen and some protective
low honor In the fourth suit" This
knowledge should enable the responding
hand either to bid six himself i'm
mediately or, If still In need of some
thing additional in openers hand. ne
can bid five no trumps, saying L still
am not sure Bid six for me If you can
provide a protective or ten-ace holding
for finessing purposes to supplement the
high cards announced by your bidding
so far" Thus with
ssg2;[EKka31. 6kk IL
the responding hand would, on my
response of four no trumps, still be II
doubt.
Lesson In INSTALLATION.
He could reason as follows: II opener
1ldS dCGSptCO lIy bNS0eoN ~.N
has three aces with only half trick
besides we may have three losing cards
one in each suit except spades. We
need in addition a queen and jack or
two lacks to give us even flnesse for
slam. My partner may hold some such
values and his bidding would so far
still have been the same. I must bid
flve no trllmps and tell him that need
something more from him in order to
x,1e HNr rla -
ceptance was based on four primary
tricks, but only two aces, his holding
Is likely to be
sgLA1o1' s9;EAo, RE 81
If I have correctly placed his high
cards thus it is certain that his four
card suit is spades. otherwise he would
have bid one of the other suits in ac-
cepting the slam-try, since they are
each headed by two top honors and
would. therefore. be biddable if consist
ing of four cards. I wish the hand to
play in six no trumps only II openers
spades are as good as so that
only the ace need be lost. I also know
that If openers hand Is as assumed. he
can definitely read my spade holding as
headed by either ace or king-queen. BY
bidding at this point five no trumps
hope to make it clear to him that am
worried about only one suit, and ne Will
know that spades are the cause Of nv
worry and pass or bid six no trumps
accordingly
If opener holds the ace Of spades.
the same analysis Is shifted to his dia
mond holding, assuming him to have
four primary tricks but only two aces.
Copyright. 1889
Mr. Sims will answer all inquiries on
contract that are addressed to this news
paper with seh-addressed. stamped en-