Evening star., 1934-03-11

mo trumpS. Now
he bids four clubs. Your reply is. OF
icourse, four spades, showing both black
kkings and saving him the need OF
lprobing for the spade king in case
tthat card should matter to him. Now
Die bids four no trumpS. What can
he mean by that?
Plainly, you say, he is making an
unusual appeal to my imagination
iand powers of deduction. What is
edt he wants to know that he cannot
ask for by direct question?
Before you read any further put
the paper down and ask yourself what
you would conclude from his four
'no trump bid-which. of course, you
sare forbidden to pass-and what you
would reply
Now that you have solved the mys-
terry let US go over the evidence in
logical order Here are the data.
Let us think aloud.
First. Opener knows I have no ace.
Second. He knows that have both
black kings.
Third. He does not require infor-
nation about the diamond suit: he
already knows I have not got the
ace. If he needed to know about the
king. he could so easily call for it by
bidding five diamonds. If I had to
deny it. it would be by hiding five
iheartS contract which l make safe
Sby supplying the king of clubs which
fhe first called for and which 1 have
Shown
Fourth. Therefore he is not interes-
led in any ace or king of these suits.
3Consequently. the field is narrowed to
two possibilities.
The first possibility is that he
is seeking information about the trump
isuit; not the ace, we all know, for
,that matter was disposed of on the
first round Is he asking me to bid
six hearts if I have the king or
queen? Maybe-but the regular way
iof doing this would be for him to
bid either five or six hearts, urging me
Ito give a raise if I had the king or
jqueen of trumps. That would be so
.,easy for him, that would be the most
sdirect method, since I have told him
5so much and he evidently has no
,other direct question to put to me-
If this should be the case, at least
supply an entry in clubs and three
trumps (making nine between us. at
least) which should enable him to take
q trump finesse if he does not care
to play for drop. So if the mysterious
question concerns trumps, I will give
him something to work with, though
I have no high trump. However, this
possibility is not nearly so likely as
the only other alternative, which is
that the opening bidder is actually
calling for a queen and that in one
of the black suits, since the diamond
suit does not interest him. This was
actually the case. Responder correctly
analyzed his partners motives and
bid five spades to show that queen.
having already denied it's ace and
showed its king. He felt also that
the hand was already probably safe
at six and even if he was wrong on
both points and partner needed only
trump honor from him. he supplied
three trumps to facilitate finesse or
drop. On hearing the response of
five spades. the opening bidder now
icontracted for grand slam in hearts
land spread his hand after the first
strick had been played. 1t was, as
you have by now surely reconstruct
ed it.
81; s,s Axs a ke, ,1ox.x eI. ei Ak
The spade and club holdings might
have been interchanged. Both black
kings having been shown by the re-
sponder, either black queen produces
q sure grand slam.
(Copyright 1934)
Mr. Sims will answer all inquiries on
that are to this