Evening star., 1937-12-12
Winning Contract
BY THE FOUR ACES.
Answers to q Reader.

~ AVID J. LLOYD of Werners-
vile, Pa, recently wrote us
an extraordinarily interest,"
- ing letter Mr.. Lloyd has
made careful study of the -Four Aces
system as embodied in our book and
our Sunday articles and has asked
great many questions on advanced
bidding situations which are not ex-
actly clear to him and which we were
unable to cover fully in our book, be-
cause OF the fact that it is impossible
to discuss every possible combination
OF bids thoroughly. no matter how
complete the book.
HIS nrst question Is concerned with
bidding which has started out,
Bidder. Responder.
l diamond heart
! spade
Now if responder bids two spades.
Mr.. Lloyd inquiries. 'Ts this a sign
of indicating mere preference, or
is it sound raise based on sound
values such as four-trick hand and
Tour trumps in support?"
Tne answer is that it is definitely
a sound raise, showing either four
trumps or three very good ones and
1our or hve tricks in support of spades
1t should be noted that whereas
we frequently recommend raising our
partners original suit bid with three
trumps to the queen or even Jack,
this Is due to the fact that although
his suit may be q four-carder, it is
very likely to be five or more. But
when he bids a diamond and later
bids a spade, the chance that he has
Is many as five spades is very slight,
since If he held q five-card spade
suit, he would bid the diamond first
only If he held six diamonds. Fur
thermore. If he does have a five-card
spade suit, he can bid it again even
though we fail to raise, whereupon we
Will then be able to raise on three
trumps.
The next question in Mr.. Lloyd's
letter concerns the three-spade bid
following the same early bids. Mr..
Lloyd asks: rs this the equivalent
OF sound single raise, or is it the
equivalent Of an original double raise?"
The answer is that this jump bid Is
absolutely forcing to game, and hence
is equivalent to double raise of part |
ner's opening one-spade bid.
His third question concerns the two
no-trump bid In the same situation,
and he asks: Is this the strength of |
an original two-no-trump takeout or |
Is 1t rehid with q hand better than |
average?" The answer ,in this last |
instance Is that in general it Is the |
equivalent Of an original two-no-trump
response. but conceivably it may be
shaded slightly. Furthermore, it might
be made with hand such as the fol- |
lowing:
~KQ 10xx
..e >10x
&AQ ok
This becomes . no-tr1,mp type only
because Of the fact that partner has
bid both the doubleton suits.
Another question by Mr.. Lloyd re-
fers to the time when the bidding has
gone:
Bidder. RESPONDER.
~ IA
2 no-trump.
He writes: This two-no-trump re-
hid theoretically indicates q limit Of
IAN to IA in high cards in your sys-
tenn, although have seen hands re-
bid to two no trump with as little as
H. ana by experts, so-called. The
question is, what Is the minimum high
caro- value necessary to rebid?"
Mr.. Lloyd is correct in his state
ment that this bid indicates q limit
Of 12h to II in high cards. Occa-
saonally. however, it may be shaded
vsry slightly. not to II, and certainly
not to less than the requirements Of
the original no-trump bid. Possibly
Mr.. Lloyd has seen experts rebid to
TWO no trump on the following bid
ding:
Bidder. Responder.
IA ~
2 no-trump
The high-card requirements for this
type OF bidding are not nearly 70 high
As Tor the first example, and may be
as little as 10, as the minimum high
sard value indicated by the two-heart
response Is much greater than the
minimum indicated by the one-spade
response in the first example.
tcopyrisht 1877
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