Evening star., 1933-12-31

ace. On the other hand, an acceptance
| of the slam try is certainly obligatory
| because you hold three primary tricks
! and splendid playing facilities. The
| hand is absolutely safe at five, but
hopeless at six unless your partner holds
two aces. If you should bid five spades
| and he then constructively bids a minor
suit to see if you can make it solid,
inevitably you will land in six, which
may be too high. Bid four no trumps,
which locates no definite ace, but does
promise three primary tricks. If he
bids five in a minor, bid five hearts.
This says Il have a strong secondary
suit in hearts. but lack the ace, as told
you by my refraining from bidding this
suit as my first rebid Sign off at five
spades unless you have two aces" If
| the responding hand were
81; ass k3S1 XXX 81: 81: ks1 < slo1
the bidding would go-one spade, four
no trumps, five diamonds, five hearts,
five spades, pass. Responder knows
that you lack the ace Of hearts and
| also the ace of diamonds, es you de-
MED it by failing to raise his secondary
| diamond bid. There is another angle
line of reasoning.
Make q Deduction From the Fact That
Your Partner Did Not Make the
| Bid You Need for Slam.
You bid a spade on the opening hand
given above: your partner says -four
| spades" Right away you have warn
| ing that slam is very doubtful: his bid
| is tremendous, I admit, but it is the
wrong one. Say to yourself: Il as
sumo we have reached a contract oi
| cd mt
hand reveal in order for that contract
Sp. KJxx Di. KQxx
Hts. AK Cl A0x
a hand with which his response would
be three no trumps, inviting me to
make a secondary constructive bid in
suit which need not be headed by its
ace" If your opening hand had void,
| as would be the case if your small dia-
mond were a small club, making 55-
80, then bid your void holding Sec
ondarily over four spades. If the re-
spending hand holds that ace, he knows
| you are bidding a void; the duplication
will be apparent to him, enabling him
to slow up in time if, as far as he
knows, there may still be two imme-
date losers of the hand.
A Brief Summary.
Really the procedure is very logical
and should not puzzle you. When. after
the triple raise, the opener bids
(a) Four no trumps, he is showing
three primary tricks, but denying a
second suit headed by its ace as good
as A j * x; he is preparing for sign
of at five, possibly because his hand
has only one ace; he is also denying
possession Of three aces.
(b) Five in his suit; he is showing
three or more primary tricks, including
two aces, one of them the ace of trumps.
Unless his suit is clubs, he is telling
| you that he wants the bidding to go
| to SIX since it will be impossible to
stop at five in the agreed suit should
the responding hand now conStructively
bid a lower ranking suit. Suit rank
| ings are important here, as unless clubs
are the trump suit the opener Is really
driving the hand to six in the suit. o.
| else is prepared to play the hand at five
no trumpS.
(c) A second suit shows two aces in
| the hands, one of them in the second
suit, and at least two and one-han
primary tricks supplemented by distri-
| butional inducements for the slam &C
ceptance, or else three primary tricks
or more without necessarily the dis
tributional features which make a slam
tempting. Occasionally this shows a
| void In the suit named.
(d) A jump rebid in suit or no
trumps or jump raise of the original
suit announces three aces; the nature