Part 3

Chapter 31,521 wordsPublic domain

While a bystander, by agreement among the players, may decide any question, yet he must on no account say anything unless appealed to; and if he make any remark which calls attention to an oversight affecting the score, or to the exaction of a penalty, he is liable to be called on by the players to pay the stakes on that rubber.

SPADE CONVENTION

I.--Where players agree "not to play spades" the rule is, that if the spade make is not doubled, the hand shall be played where either side is 20 or over.

II.--If the third hand player ask, "Shall I play?" or should he lead out of turn, or should the eldest hand lead without asking permission to play, the spade maker may take two on the score or may call a lead and require the hand to be played out.

III.--Should the third hand player double before his partner asks permission to play, the spade maker may decide whether the double shall stand or not; but the hand must be played out.

ETIQUETTE

It has been truthfully said that there is no game in which slight intimations can convey so much information as that of Bridge. In justice to those who, by their manner, give information, it may be stated that most of the apparent unfairness at the Bridge table is unintentional. Hesitation and mannerisms, however, cannot be too carefully avoided; such a breach of etiquette is an offence for which the adversaries have no redress except perhaps a refusal to continue the play.

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It is obviously a greater fault to take advantage of information thus given. A play in your judgment may be perfectly sound, but you leave yourself open to criticism if it is in any way contingent on information obtained from your partner's manner.

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Cultivate uniformity in your style of play; let there be no remarkable haste or hesitation in making or passing; try always to use the same formula of words, and do not call attention to the score after the cards have been dealt.

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Remember that any undue hesitancy in regard to doubling will deprive a fair-minded partner of the privilege of so doing. Such delays are too frequent at spade declarations.

Emphasise no play of your own and show no pleasure or displeasure at any other play.

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Do not ask to have the cards placed unless it is solely for your own information.

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It is an offence either to revoke purposely or to make a second revoke in order to conceal the first.

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The dealer's partner should not call attention to the score nor to any card or cards that he or the other players hold, and neither should he leave his seat for the purpose of watching his partner's play.

THE DECLARATION

Avoid a weak diamond make at a love score or when behind on the game.

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Declare clubs at a score of 18 or more when reasonably assured of the game.

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Declare spades at a score of 24 or more when reasonably assured of the game.

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PASSED MAKES

Be cautious about declaring no-trumps when weak in the red suits.

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Avoid all weak red makes on partner's pass.

Declare clubs instead of spades when you hold but one or two spades and a club suit of four or more cards including two honours.

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Declare your best suit at a score of 24 all on the rubber game.

ORIGINAL LEADS AGAINST A DECLARED TRUMP

THE ORIGINAL LEAD AT NO-TRUMP

UNBLOCKING AT NO-TRUMP

THE CHANGE THE SUIT CALL

"What is new in the game of Bridge?" is a reiterated question of the day, and the invariable answer is "Nothing, nor does the lack of innovation tend to simplify the play."

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All Bridge players have experienced the agony of being forced to discard a great suit, thoroughly established, on the dealer's lead, owing to the fact that the partner has made two efforts to establish the suit he originally opened.

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Many times this continuation is sound: the leader holds a re-entry card, and he has secured no information as to his partner's strength from the early development of the game.

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It is essential to good play that the dealer's adversaries should each gain definite knowledge of the others' holding. Any information that a play can convey is of inestimable help to them and of little or no benefit to the dealer, who is the master of his own two hands.

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We all sympathise with that constantly uttered regret, "Oh, partner, if I had only known that you had that suit," and Bridge players the world over have felt the need of some conventional play that would indicate to the original leader an adequate reason for a change of suit.

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The Change the Suit Call is a new convention designed to overcome this difficulty, one that will save countless tricks and rubbers, and one that will tend to minimise the dealer's acknowledged advantage in playing the two hands.

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The convention is as follows: _When the original leader's partner has a great suit, one that is established or one that may be established by a single lead through the dummy hand, an echo should be made in the suit led by the dealer._ In other words, an echo in the adversary's suit is a command to the original leader to abandon his own unestablished suit and to switch to his partner's declared strength.

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The idea is of course based on the call for trumps in Whist, in which game an echo in any plain suit is a command to the partner to lead trumps. In Bridge it is used principally at no-trump and its application is limited to an echo on the _dealer's_ lead.

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The reader will naturally ask, "How, when but two suits have been led, can I determine which of the two remaining to choose?" The cards in the leader's hand combined with those in the dummy will usually simplify the selection. Should the leader hold a re-entry in one of the remaining suits it is obvious that he has been asked to lead the other. When it happens that both the leader and the dummy are weak in both suits, the preference should usually be given to the one in which the combined hands contain the fewer number of cards.

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This convention may, moreover, be used to great advantage by the original leader. How frequently he finds his suit hopelessly against him. Perhaps he holds no re-entry and the dealer in winning the first trick false cards. It is then that the original leader can use this echo to effect, to suggest that his suit should not be returned.

"The Change the Suit Call" may also be employed to some advantage on the dealer's trump or plain suit lead, to show great strength in one of the remaining suits, or by the original leader to indicate that the suit first led is not to be returned; but its main importance is in the no-trump application.

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"The Change the Suit Call" is an absolutely sound trick-gaining proposition, and the successful results obtained from its use must rapidly establish it as a recognised convention of the game.