Evening star., 1934-03-26
Conquering Contract
BY p. HAL SIMS.

suit of mutual rescues and mutual
uncertainty. BY bidding hearts you
give the player on your left an i'm
mediate option to clear up all doubts
and worries by summarily doubling
you for business, if SO be that hearts
are a misfit for your side and spades
are for his. You do not give him a
chance to make mistake and mis-
bid what is, under these circum-
stances, always a difficult responding
hand to bid well.
Next, let us assume that this same
opponent has good hand; either
he can raise in spades over your
heart overcall or he can bid a
minor suit. If he should bid at this
point you have really saved him a
round of bidding because such con-
structive move says to his partner:
Though the opponent has kept the
bidding open for you, l am bidding
right now. Therefore my bid Is very
constructive; it is no mere chance
giving device to keep the bidding
open for you. Our kind opponent
has already done that. This bid of
mine means that If that opponent
had passed l could almost, if not
! quite, have given you jump and
raise or jump response" Under these
same conditions let us assume that
your partner has four hearts this is
more likely If your hearts are only five
| in number instead of six, but the
reasoning is clear nevertheless), and
also a singleton, probably in spades
and some other value, such as K j.
He therefore supports your hearts
telling you that a sacrifice, il neces-
sary. will not be too expensive. Now,
If either of your opponents holds
three losing hearts in his hand, your
bidding has told him that not more
than one Of them is a loser with
spades as trumps) because your side
must have at least nine hearts for
the bidding given; he has three; thus
| his partner cannot have more than
one. and may (as would be the case
here) have void in hearts. Thus
| you have eliminated two losers, maybe
three, and enabled the enemy to bid
their hands safely and correctly to its
right limit. Had your bidding not
given them these inferences it is
doubtful whether they could have
obtained SO accurate map of the
| distribution of the heart suit. You
may object that the player with the
| singleton or void in hearts would
know anyhow that they had only
one or no loser in hearts. That is
true, and II he has a strong hand
| 1t is likely that you will not be able
to interfere with their proper bid
ding whatever you do. If, on the
contrary, his hand is not strong. but
merely helpful, then the burden of
driving the bidding up will devolve
on the other partner-the one with
, three small hearts in his hand if
nobody has bid hearts, from the very
fact that his partner does not bid
hearts or two no trumps, he will have
to consider them losers and for that
reason be unable to make a strong
rebid. If, however, you tell him
what his partner cannot tell him
that at most one of these hearts is a
loser-then you have handed him the
dagger with which to assassinate you.
If you had doubled instead of bid
ding you would, as we shall see. at
least not make it easier for the op-
ponents, even if-,you should on this
occasion fail to stop them from get
ting the normal result which their
cards call for.
Mr.. Sims will answer all INQUIRIES on
contract that are addressed to this news
! velope.
tCopyrisht. 1e34)