Evening star., 1938-02-20
By Frank B. Lord.

* trump, contract when third
hand holds two high cards in
sequence Of suit led. play the
lower Of the sequence. II such card
forces declarer. to play . higher card
not in sequence. the leader knows
that the third hand holds the inter-
mediate card. Example, West Is leader
and holds five clubs to the jack and
the king Of diamonds guarded. He
leads his fourth highest and East.
holding the king, queen and one.
should play the queen. Then when
West gets In with his king Of dia-
monds he can lead another low club,
which will be taken by East's queen.
and II another club Is returned he
will win five tricks.
The thrill that Is experienced by .
contract player when holding . per-
feet hand ut bridge. that Is, 13 cards
Of the same suit, Is one that comes
once In . lifetime, II at all. The keen
disappointment 1T not being permit.
ted to play such q hand, however, is
tragically depressing. The perfect hand
at bridge In . measure Is comparable
to hole-in-one at golf. but far more
infrequent. The records show that
hole-in-one has been made several
scores of times throughout the United
States in . single season. Clyde
Asher. well known Washington
business man. Is accredited with hav-
ing made . hole-in-one on two sue
cessive days one season playing on
. golf links near Portsmouth, N. H.
At least Mr.. Asher was awarded two
cases Of the product Of . bottling
company for the alleged achievement.
The reported instances where q per-
feet bridge hand has been held by
local players does not exceed . half
dozen times during the years since
contract has been acclaimed the popu-
lar indoor pastime.
Imagine then the distress which
came to Mrs. Charles j. Maxcy, the
wife Of the controller of the United
States Housing Administration, when,
In playing . game Of contract with q
party of friends recently, she picked
up . hand containing 13 clubs. Yes.
there they were-l3 tsh hooks. She
carefully counted them, restraining an
expression Of emotion. which would
have been most natural. Calmly she
announced her bid as seven clubs. and
her side was vulnerable The player
1T her left had fairly good hand of
spades, topped by the ace, but she had
sufncient discretion to pass. Not so,
however, with Mrs. Maxcy's partner,
who was rated as q fairly good player.
She studied her hand for a time. Hold
Ing two aces and, Of course, no clubs,
but realizing that perfect hands are
such an extreme rarity. she figured
that on such bid her partner prob
ably held q very long suit of clubs and
. side ace. Also. figuring that seven
no trump would score more than seven
clubs. she accordingly bid seven no
trump.
Mrs. Maxcy could do no more ex-
cept suffer. well knowing that the de-
clarer could not possibly get into her
hand. One who saw the play de-
scribes her restraint as something that
angels might well envy. OF course,
the adversary holding the spade ace
doubled and the declarer was set seven
tricks for loss Of 1000 points. Had
Mrs. Maxcy been allowed to play the
hand she would have made q grand
slam, vulnerable, with $50 honors, for
. total score Of 2,29el, 500 for grand
slam, 500 for rubber, $50 for honors
140 for tricks. The no-trump bid being
set 1000 caused q swing of exactly
1890 points.
The observer who saw the play calls
attention to the fact that, due to Mrs.
Maxcy's restraint. the police records
contained no report of a homicide on
that day.
Mathematicians. whether or not they
may be bridge players, calculate that
the chances Of holding a perfect hand
at bridge are in 635, 900 600, 900 deals.
A little golf ball driven by an expert
at that game may go sailing through
the air for 200 yards. more or less, and
come to q full stop In the regulation
cup at which it is aimed. Mathe-
mates do not govern that. but per-
feet hand at bridge-well, that Is in
deed an extremely rare occurrence.
MANY players often find difficulty
in dealing with situation where
four trumps to the jack are held in
the hand of one adversary while the
other oDponent has none The cor.