Evening star., 1937-02-21
Winning Contract
By THE FOUR ACES.

w 1 IL IL L LIZ
By THE
david Burnstine. Merwin D. Maier. oswal
team-of-four. inventors Of th,
other system
Exploding Old Theory.
TN THE old days Of auction there
used to be a most peculiar bidding
theory which has been completely
i exploded in contract, namely, the
strong third and fourth hand bids.
The following quotation will be taken
from any authority Of IS years back:
The player who opens the bidding
in fourth position is taking a great
responsibility on himself in that
should he pass, the hand will be passed
out Therefore, before opening the
bidding fourth hand, you must be
sure that the opponents cannot make
game against you"
Under that definition II would be
unthinkable to open in fourth posi-
ton with a hand such as the follow
ing:
Spades
Hearts XXX
Diamonds A Kxxxx
Clubs K XXX
OF course, the intelligent players
did not pay very much attention to
this bugaboo. and opened such hand.
But even they would never think OF
opening fourth hand with a holding
such as:
Spades
Hearts X KJxx
Diamonds K OK
Clubs A Qxx
At first this bugaboo was carried
forward into contract. but after .
while players began to reason that
they could afford to open fairly lightly
In fourth position because even though
their opponents had passed out game
hand it would be very unlikely that
they would bid 1t If they both had
passed. In fact, with some people the
pendulum swung back. and for a
short while we had the Sims system,
with the absurdity that you should
pass very big hands in first or sec
ond position. and, accordingly. would
have to open with below-average
hands in third or fourth position to
protect your partners pass. We are
glad to say that that also has died
out, and today virtually all contract
players follow our simple rule, which
Is: The requirements for an opening
bid are the same in any position
first, second, third or fourth hand
vulnerable or not"
In order that this rule may be used
to the best advantage. however. 1t IS
essential that players who have passed
originally do not make the mistake
of feeling that the fact that they have
passed gives them the license to over
bid as much as they wish thereafter.
Remember, the fact that you have
passed originally does not change your
cards any; you still have the same
hand.
In last Sundays article We gave
one example of how overbidding by q
player who had passed got his side in
trouble. Here are few more:
Example North passed in second
position holding:
Spades @ J 10xx
Hearts A Xxx
Diamonds Xxx
Clubs OK
South opened fourth hand with a
spade. North promptly jumped his
partner to three. South, with a very
sound opening bid. contracted for
game and went down a trick. As
usual, North's excuse was that, hav-
ing passed. he felt he must jump to
three spades Otherwise, in his opin-
ion, South could never visualize that
he (North) held such q strong hand.
Example @South passed second
hand holding:
Spades A Qxx
Hearts A XXX
Diamonds Xxx
Clubs K xxx
His partner opened fourth hand
with one diamond. whereupon South
made the Jump response of two spades.
Eventually his partner took him to Q
four-spade contract, which was set,
due to the fact that South was much
weaker in spades than his partner
had expected. whereas three no-trump
would have been cold.
Incidentally, this hand brings us to
another error. which is that of passing
q bid and then trying to correct it
later. South had no excuse for pass
ing. Instead, he should have opened
the bidding with one club. His part
ner would have responded with dia-
mond. South would now have bid a
spade. North would have realized
that his partner held but four card
spade suit and the game would have
been bid in the right denomination.
However, South did pass. Now when
his partner opened in fourth position
he should merely have bid one spade,
the reason being that the Jump bid
in a new suit by a player who has
passed should be used only to show not
only a maximum hand, but also q
hand which is very strong distribu-
tionally, with either q very strong suit
Stamp Club will meet in the green
room of the Government Printing Of
ace Building Thursday evening at Sis
o'clock. Syend Yort will show spefi-
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