Evening star., 1937-01-03

in existence)
bidding and a sound slam contract
may often be reached on bidding OF
this type: Bidder, one no-trump; re-
sponder, four no-trump; bidder, six
no-trump. The opening one no-trump
shows a point count of from liz to
13. The leap to four shows approxi-
mately 10. Now If the opening no.
trumper's hand is about a minimum
he will pass and the contract is in
no danger. But if he holds about a
maximum, that is 1914 or 13 points,
he can jump to slam with perfect as
surance since he knows that six no.
trump will usually be produced with
combined point count of 22ls points.
The other two ways of reaching
slams successfully are, briefly: Ace
showing and cue bids in suits bid by
the opponents. The cue bid in the
opponents suit is used to tell partner
that the player holds first-round con-
troll in that suit, strong trump sup
port, and that he is interested in a
slam.
ONE new development was the in
vention of a convention to offset
the devastating effect of opening pre-
emptive bids. Formerly the double
OF any opening four-bid was for busi-
ness. the double of an opening three
bio primarily for take-out purposes,
while three no-trump over an OPEN
ing three-bid meant the player wished
to play the hand at that contract
This last is unchanged. The change
is this:
While the double Of three of a
minor suit is still for take-out pur-
poses, the double of three of a ma ior
suit is now for business. If. however.
a player holds a powerful hand, but
is unable either to double a ma ior
three-bid for business or to bid three
no-trump. he now calls four clubs
an artificial bid that requests partner
to take out in his best suit. This
convention is very similar to the
four no-trump overcall of an opening
four-bid, the only difference being
that partner can respond in the range
of four.
If a player who has bid four clubs
over an opening three-bid has his
strength concentrated in long club
suit he must naturally rebid the suit
after partners takeout. We believe
this new convention to be quite useful
and have incorporated 1t into the
Four Aces system.
Another development is the grow
ing popularity of the suit-directing
convention. While this play is several
years old, it received little attention
until this year, but, as 1t is quite
useful in certain defensive situations.
it has recently attained a considerable
vogue. Its chief use occurs in a situa-
ton of this type:
Declarer has contracted for four
spades, and your partner has opened
what looks to you like q singleton
club. You have won the opening
lead with the ace, but in giving
partner a ruff you wish to let him
know which of the two remain
suits-in his case hearts and dia-
monds-you wish him to lead. If
you hold the ace Of hearts. you return
a high club, requesting partner to
lead the higher ranking of the suits.
II you want diamond return, be.
cause you hold the ace or are void
IN that suit, you return the lowest
club.
WILLIAM E. McKENNY, secretary
OF the American Bridge League,
has supplemented this suit.directinp
convention considerably, and has ex-
tended Its use to cover innumerable
situations. However, we believe that
to complicate it would spoil its ef-
fectiveness, since extravagant suit.
directing signals would tend to in
terfere frequently with ordinary de-
fensive play. However. there is one
other occasion where we believe the
suit-directing signal might prove use
ful, viz: you are about to establish
your long suit against no-trump con-
tract and hold one sure re-entry. II
you now lead the lowest card Of your
suit. you indicate that your re-entry
Is in the lowest remaining suit. II
you lead the highest. the opposite is
true. There will surely be one long
suit that the declarer obviously is
going to establish and hence can be
omitted from your calculations. This
usage would not interfere with ordi-
nary defensive play, and on sion
will prove quite useful.
(Copyright 1887
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The next article In this series win %.
pees tomorrow.