Evening star., 1938-04-03
By Frank B. Lord.
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AA AAA A451N III 1AlS
~ conquest Of Austria has given
~ the vast majority of Washing
ton bridge players an addi-
tional cause for grievance in that he
did not Immediately order the execu-
tion or the expulsion of Dr. Marculin,
the Viennese scientist who is endeavor-
ing to impose five-suit bridge upon
a cortented contract world. Execu-
tion would have been preferred, since
If DR.. Marculin were merely expelled
from the country he might migrate
to america. The doctors attempt to
introduce the quintuplet deck into
the game of contract bridge is re-
garded locally as about the worst
abortion that has ever been tried
in the history of the popular pastime.
The added suit of 13 cards is green
In color and is called crowns" or
royals" or eagles" as one may
elect according to his nationality.
Five-suit bridge was first heard of
IN the United States several weeks
ago. when Miss Katherine Curtis Of
the New York staff OF the London
Daily Mail mentioned it to Miss Flor
ence Osborne, the bridge editor Of
the New York Herald-Tribune. and
said that it was being attempted in
London. Miss Osborne wrote a short
story about it, with the result that
the bridge racketeers at once seized
upon 1t as affording an opportunity
to produce another bridge book. 1t
gave them new idea and several
of them have announced the pub
llcation of treatise upon the subject
written overnight. The discussion has
has set the entire bridge contingent
agog, but seemingly without producing
any marked degree of favorable con-
sideration.
In the new five-suit deck there are
65 cards, 16 for each player and one
for the widow" When the auction
is concluded the declarer is entitled
to take the widow" card either in
his own hand or the dummy, and
make one discard. Eight tricks instead
OF six constitute book" and the
scoring is, no-trump, 40 per trick;
royals, 30. spades or hearts, 25; dia-
monds or clubs. 20. The game is 12O
points, and therefore game in one
deal requires the making of three no.
trump, four royals. five spades or
hearts. six diamonds or clubs.
In making small slam the de-
clarer may lose two tricks and score a
bonus of 500 when non-v vulnerable and
$50 when vulnerable; grand slam is
made when declarer loses only one
trick. and the score is l 900 when nom
vulnerable and 1900 when vulnerable
a super slam means the winning of
every trick IAN eight bid, and the
bonus is l,500 when non-vulnerable
and 1000 when vulnerable. Four
trump honors in one hand count 100,
flve-trump honors in one hand $50.
four aces in one hand at no trump
$50 and five aces in one hand at no
trump 800
The enlarged deck Is by no means
anything new; it is as old as card
playing itself When cars were first
introduced in Italy, Spain, France and
Germany, from whence no one seems
to know, some five or six hundred
years ago. decks varied in the number
of cards they contained. some of them
having as many as 96 cards. The
English with their systematic meth
DDS gradually reduced the number to
48, with which they played ruff and
honours" and "swabbers," crude and
primitive forms of what is now called
bridge
When Edmund Hoyle, a London
barrister, took ruff and honours"
from the gamblers, renamed it whist"
and established it in polite society he
restored the lowly deuces which had
been excluded from the 48-card deck
and made the thirteenth or "odd"
trick of persent-day bridge. This was
done in the Crown Coffee House in
Bedford Row, London. in 1734-1736.
Thus the 52-card deck has remained
for 200 years.
AS recently as three years ago
George H Rodgers, a contract player
Of Chicago, suggested a five-suit deck
with so cards, the deuces being elm
mated. He called the fifth suit the
percentage suit" and it ranked with
the majors of contract The card
manufacturers produced no fve-suit
decks, and the suggestion died
a-bornin." The vast majority of
players never heard of it. Ely Gull
bertson, one of the triumvirate of
dictators Of bridge, has repeatedly