Evening star., 1937-08-22

leadinE team -four. inventors of the sys-
gem that has beaten every other system
Towie.
4 UCT1ON, the father of contract
bridge, started as three-handed
game at lonely Army post in India,
where three officers could find no
fourth for either whist or regular
bridge. While it soon became much
more popular as a four-handed game.
nevertheless various forms of three
handed bridge have always been
PLAYED. The latest and most popular
of these, towie. invented several years
ago by J. Leonard Replogle, Is now
popular at many of the New York
clubs, and we feel that few articles
on it will be of interest to many OF
our readers.
In toWie, when the deal is COM
pleted, the dealer turns up six of
dummy's cards. The players now bid
for the dummy. their bids, of course,
being Influenced both by their own
hands and by the cards exposed in
dummy.
The play is the same as in contract,
but the scoring, which is taken from
that of several years ago, is as follows:
Contract trump, IS a
trick (odd SIS are dropped, lie, no.
trump is 100. no-trump, l40, etc)
Major suit, 80 a trick; minor suit, 20
a trick
Over trcks-Not doubled, so points
q trick; doubled, not vulnerable, 100
points trick; doubled. vulnerable,
200 points a trick: redoubled, not vul-
nerable, 200 points a trick; redoubled,
Vulnerable, 400 points trick
Bonus for making cOntract-Dou-
bled, not Vulnerable 30 points; dou-
bled, vulnerable. 100 points; redou-
bled. not vulnerable, 100 points; re-
doubled. vulnerable. 200 points.
Penalties, down ] to 8 tricks:
Undoubled not vulnerable-50. 100,
$50, 200. $50, 800, $50 and 400
Undoubled. vulnerable 100, 300,
300, TOO 900 l,lOo, 1900 and 500
Doubled. not vulnerable-100, 200,
400, $50, l,ooo*. l4oo 1000 and $500.
Doubled, vulnerable-2oo 500, l.
ooo', l,4oo, 1900, 2,2oo, $500 and
1000.
"A penalty Of 1000 is known as
towie, and in some circles the loser
is supposed to buy refreshments for
the table.
Redoubled penalties are twice the
doubled ones.
The low penalties for small nom
Vulnerable sets encourage defensive
bidding The LARGE vulnerable PEN
hlties penalza those who try too hard
balance, bonuses of 500 points for
game and 1000 for rubber are re-
Warded.
While toWis is essentially a three
handed game, any larger number can
play, although We would suggest that
more than five is undesirable. In
game of this type, the players who
hre not seated at the table are treated
he same as defending player, and
the dealer is set are credited with
he same penalty bonus.
At the start of the rubber the play
Prs cut for seats, the highest three
being the initial players. The PLAYER
who becomes declarer on the first
hand gives way to the first alternate.
Rnd so on. except that player who
Is not vulnerable does not give his
Feat up to vulnerable player.
For instance, let us consider five
handed game. Hand No /: Player
makes game: player gets his seat.
Hand No. 2: Player is set; player
gets his seat. Hand No 3: Player
makes game: player B gets his seat,
even though player D had been sitting
put longer. Hand No. 4: Player B
goes down again, but retains his seat,
since he is not vulnerable, while both
A and D, who are out. are. Hand No.
5: Player B makes game; player A
lakes his seat, and now he is at the
Ia bic with players c and D. neither
bf whom is vulnerable Accordingly,
player A. who was lucky enough to
win the first game, gets first crack
et the rubber. and is likely to get
Feveral more cracks at il, since the
bnly way he can lose his seat is to
be set.
incidentally, humorous feature of
toWle is the kibtzer situation. One
VINO klbltzeS many rubber bridge
Games realizes the difficulty of re-
naming still and watching what goes
bn. But in towie, not only must you
remain still. but also share in the
losses OF your supposed partner in the
event they make mistakes and you
have real opportunity for "construc-
tive criticism
tCopyrisht, 1879
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