Evening star., 1933-09-06
Conqueringg Contract
BY P. HAL SIMS

trump with considerably less in my
hand. II his rebid Is not helpful be-
cause it merely reveals duplication in
spades will pass. To illustrate: The
bidding having been one spade by
partner. one no trump by me on the
above hand:
a. If my palmer bids two no trumps,
very strong invitation rebid, I will
bid three spades, hoping that this will
four spades.
b. If he bids two spades I will pass.
Our spades are duplication; what
we need are values in the heart and
club suits. Having these. my partner
would have bid two no trumps or two
in q fresh suit.
c. II he bids two hearts or two clubs
will bid three spades. telling him that
new light has been shed On our hands,
and that he must 60 for game In
spades or no trumps. now know that
We have three suits under control, 90
that game should at worst be dependent
on finesse. Two spades would be q
dangerous underbid; opener would
preference for his first suit, and would
have to pass, in view Of my weak first-
round response, unless very strong.
d. II he bid two diamonds over my
one no-trump response would SINH
larly bid three spades. II my partner
next bid three no trumps would not
let him play 1t because I now know
that he has q two-suiter with . dis
tribution calling for suit play and that
he would not have bid three no trumps
had he known Of my strong diamond
support. -Four spades would be my bid
over three no trumps. the latter being
negative response to my belated
forcing Jump raise In spades.
A Different Category.
My point is to make sure that you
understand that . split hand with four
trumps belongs in the weakest group OF
responding hands-those on which one
bids no trump In reply to the OPEN
ing bid-even with values which would
make it pretty good supporting hand
if it included doubleton. II there Is
really q game in the 26 cards of the
partnership 1t Is unearthed by the
later bidding. Having made it hard for
your partner to bid anything but two
in his original suit-a rebid which
take drastic action If after all he can
make any OF the bids which show the
outside values or the uneven distribu-
ton which can overcome the handicape
of the responding hands useless dis
tribution. You. as responder with the
above hand. do not hold the key to the
partnership destiny until you have heard
the openers rebid. His second install
ment-lacking one. he passes the no
trump-tells you whether to subside OF
to force for Q game contract.
Inference and Guidance.
This reasoning suggests . deft COM
parison with the raise to two spades,
previously explained, on
e.. sR; a Ak ak q: 81 :1111
With this hand you disregard its useless
distribution because your partner IL
known to have five spades and, to Jus
tify an opening bid, two and Q hall
to three primary tricks outside his
spades. Plainly his bidding will be
cramped If he is left in doubt Is to
the usefulness of his patchy spade suit
BY Immediately informing him Of spade
support you enable him to bid boldly
on his other values. Yours was mes
sage which had to be delivered early;
you knew that you had vital. informa-
tion to give, though unable to add any
thing to it later, no matter what the
opener might do next. You had to bid
your partners hand for him on your
first response whereas with the hands
previously discussed you had to lie low
and only bid his hand for him when he
had given you any one Of several key
responses.
copyright. 1933)