Evening star., 1934-02-16
Conquering Contract
By P. HAL SIMS

to reveal Just where your values are
concentrated, just where you elimi-
nate losers. You must not, however,
suggest the heart suit as the possible
ultimate declaration for the hand be-
cause 1t is fatty impossible for
the heart suit to find a fit. You
do not care to play the hand in
a four card trump suit of which your
partner cannot hold more than three,
do you7 Do you want TO have at
least six trumps against you? To fit
your hearts your partner must hold
four small hearts. That is, four losers
in hearts. He cannot possibly have
this heart holding, for he has made
two-bid, which promises not more
than three losers in the hand.
The Risk of Duplication.
Though the risk of duplication is
much less with a two-bid than with
a three-bid, let us take this possihil-
ity into consideration,
It is true that the greater your
high-card strength in one suit, the
greater the chance of its being a
duplication when your partner makes
an opening forcing bid. However, If
your partner has one heart in his
hand, your hearts are going to elimi-
nate losers for him and he is going to
get onto your hand and get his dis
cards and make his slam. Only If he
cannot stand of the losers in some
other suit will he be Immediately de-
feated in a slam contract, and in that
event he should not get the slam.
If you bid three no trumps and later
hearts, he has no business to bid six
of anything if his hand contains two
immediate losers in any suit and a
singleton heart. The time factor will
plainly be against him for a slam.
If he has A or A in his other
weak suit, he can slam because he
now knows he can park those two
small cards on your hearts, or at
least one of them. He could, IN tact,
now bid a slam, even II he expected
TO lose a trump trick, relying on a
heart finesse in case your holding
we're only A @ ]. Your three no
trump response, followed later by a
heart bid, is likely to outline exactly
for him the whole play Of the hand
and definitely eliminate two or three
losers from his hand. But" you VIII
say, "supposing that
The Opening Bidder Is Void Of Hearts
and so cannot get to my hand" In
that event he has 5-0-4-4 or 5-O-5-3
distribution and will bid SO as to find
out which suit you fit. With five,
four, four, he will find that if you
do not have four cards to support
either minor suit, you must have
three spades to support his original
five-card spade suit. You have nine
cards outside the hearts, so you must
be able to decide the trump suit for
him. and he will play with at least
eight trumps in the two hands. On
this bidding he may never need your
high hearts, but if he does it will be
extraordinarily unlucky if he does
not get into dummy with trump
possibly by leaving a trump in dummy
and rIf1ing an off-Suit which the
opponent In whose hand a trump Is
still left cannot overruff Should your
partner hold i've solid spades, five
solid diamonds and three small clubs,
the bidding should go-tWo spades,
three no trumps, four diamonds, four
hearts, four spades recognizing the
duplication and signing Off, pass. Re-
sponder must not continue; had
opener had a small heart and only
two clubs, he could over four hearts
bid five diamonds. confeSSing to two
club losers and asking responder to
pass or bid five spades, but when
neither can win the second round Of
clubs they should have no difficulty
in stopping at contract which they
can make without any risk, allowing
for the exact number of club losers
which they have failed to eliminate.
(Copyright, 1e34)
Mr.. Sims will answer all inquiries on
contract that are addressed to this news
paper with self-addressed, stamped en-
velope.