Part 3
The game is 30 points, which must be made by tricks alone, so that three over the book, called three “by cards,” will go game from love at no trump, or four by cards at hearts or royals. These are called the _=Major=_ or _=Winning Suits=_. As it takes five by cards to go game in clubs or diamonds, and on account of the difficulty of such an undertaking, these are called the _=Minor=_ or _=Losing Suits=_. An original bid of one spade can be made only by the dealer, and it simply means, “I pass.” That is, the dealer has nothing to declare on the first round of the bidding. [See note at foot of page 58.]
_=RANK OF THE BIDS.=_ In order to over-call a previous bid, whether of the partner or the opponent, the bidder must undertake to win the same number of tricks in a suit of higher value, or a greater number of tricks having the same aggregate value as the preceding bid. Players should restrict themselves to the same form of expression throughout, and all bids, even passing, must be made orally and not by gesture.
Let us suppose this to be the bidding: The dealer, Z, begins with “One spade,” second player, A, says, “I pass,” or simply, “No.” Third bidder, Y, says, “One club,” fourth player, B, “No trump.” The dealer, starting on the second round, says, “Two clubs,” supporting his partner’s declaration. Next player, A, who passed the first time, says, “Two royals.” Both Y and B pass, but the dealer, Z, says, “Three clubs.” Observe that while three clubs is worth no more than two royals, 18, the club bid offers to win more tricks than the royals and therefore ranks as a higher bid. A doubles three clubs. Y passes and B says, “Two no trumps.” As will be explained presently, doubling does not affect the value of the declaration in bidding, so two no trumps, worth 20, over-calls three clubs. Z, A and Y all pass, so two no trumps becomes the winning declaration and B is the declarer, A being the dummy, with Z to lead for the first trick.
In this example, had the bid been left at three clubs, doubled or not, that would have been the winning declaration, and the partner who first named that suit, Y, would be the declarer, Z being the dummy, although Z actually made the highest bid. It is only when the two players that have both named the winning suit are not partners that the higher bidder becomes the declarer.
_=DOUBLING.=_ No player may double his partner, but he may redouble an opponent who has doubled. All doubling must be strictly in turn, like any other bid. Doubling does not affect the value of the bids, but simply doubles the value of the tricks or penalties when they are scored at the end of the hand. Suppose A bids two royals and Y doubles. B can take A out with three clubs, because, so far as the bidding goes, two royals are still worth only 18.
Any over-call annuls the double, or redouble. Suppose A says two hearts, Y doubles, B redoubles, and Z says two royals. The doubling is all knocked out, and if A were to go three hearts and get the contract, hearts would be worth only 8 a trick in the scoring unless Y doubled all over again. A double reopens the bidding, just the same as any other declaration, allowing the player’s partner, or the player himself in his turn, to take himself out of the double by bidding something else.
_=IRREGULARITIES IN DECLARING.=_ If any player declares out of turn, either in bidding a suit or in doubling, either opponent may demand a new deal, or may allow the declaration so made to stand, in which case the next player to the left must bid, just as if the declaration had been in turn. If a player pass out of turn there is no penalty, and the player whose turn it was must declare himself. The player who has passed out of his proper turn may re-enter the bidding if the declaration he passed has been over-called or doubled.
If a player makes an insufficient or impossible declaration, either adversary may call attention to it. Suppose the last bid is three royals, and the next player says four clubs. This is not enough, as three royals is worth 27 and four clubs only 24. Unless the player in error correct himself at once, and make it five clubs, either adversary may demand that it be five clubs, and the partner of the corrected player cannot bid unless this five-club bid is over-called or doubled. A player correcting himself must stick to the suit named, not being allowed to say four diamonds when he sees that four clubs is not enough.
If an insufficient declaration is passed or over-called by the player on the left, it is too late to demand any penalty, and the insufficient bid stands as regular. Suppose A bids three royals and Y says four clubs, B and Z passing. A can repeat his bid of three royals if he likes, as that is enough to over-call four clubs.
If a player makes an impossible declaration, such as calling six diamonds over five no trumps, when it is clearly impossible to make any diamond declaration worth 50, either adversary may demand a new deal, or may insist that the last bid made by his own side, five no trumps, shall be the winning declaration, or he may force the player in error to declare a grand slam in diamonds and play it, his partner being forbidden to take him out.
_=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The winning declaration settled, whether doubled or not, the player on the left of the declarer leads for the first trick, and dummy’s cards go down, the declarer playing the combined hands. The declarer gathers the tricks for his side, but either adversary may gather for the other. The first six tricks taken by the declarer make a book, and all over the book count toward his contract. The adversaries have a book as soon as they reach the limit of the tricks they may win without “setting” the contract. If the contract is four hearts, the declarer must win ten tricks, so that his opponents have a book when they get home three tricks. All tricks should be laid so that they may be readily counted by any player at the table.
_=DUMMY.=_ Until a card is led by the proper player, the declarer’s partner has all the rights of any other player, but as soon as the player to the left of the declarer leads and dummy’s cards are laid on the table, dummy’s duties and rights are restricted to the following:
He may call attention to few cards played to a trick; correct an improper claim of either adversary; call attention to a trick taken by the wrong side; ask his partner if he have none of a suit to which he renounces; correct an erroneous score; consult with the declarer as to which penalty to exact for a revoke; and, if he has not intentionally overlooked the hand of another player, he may call his partner’s attention to an established revoke made by the adversaries, or to a card exposed by them or a lead out of turn made by them.
_=The Revoke.=_ Should a player fail to follow suit when able to do so, it is a revoke, and the revoke is established when the trick in which it occurs is turned down and quitted by the side that won it, or when the revoking player, or his partner, in his right turn or otherwise, has led or played to the following trick. If a player ask his partner if he has none of the suit led, before the trick is turned down, the revoke may be corrected, unless the player in error replies in the negative, or has led or played to the next trick.
Dummy cannot revoke under any circumstances.
The penalty for the revoke depends on the side in error. If the declarer revokes he cannot score anything but honours as actually held, while the adversaries take 100 points penalty in the honour column, in addition to any they may be entitled to for defeating the declaration. If an adversary revokes, they score honours only, and the declarer may either take the 100 points, or he may take three actual tricks and add them to his own. If he takes the tricks, they may aid him in fulfilling his contract, as the score is then made up as the tricks lie, but the declarer will not be entitled to any bonus in case he was doubled.
Suppose Z is the declarer, and is playing three hearts doubled. He wins the odd trick only, but detects a revoke, for which he takes three tricks. This gives him four by cards, doubled, worth 64 points toward game, but he does not get any bonus for making his contract after being doubled, or for the extra tricks, because they were taken in penalty and not in play.
_=Exposed Cards.=_ After the deal but before the winning declaration is settled, if any player exposes a card his partner is barred from bidding or doubling, and the card is subject to call. Should the partner of the offending player prove to be the leader to the first trick, the declarer may prohibit the initial lead of the exposed suit.
All cards exposed by the declarer’s adversaries after the original lead are liable to be called and must be left on the table, face upward. Exposed cards are those played two at a time, dropped on the table face up, or so held that the partner might see them, or cards mentioned as being in the hand of the player or his partner. The declarer is not liable to any penalty for exposed cards.
_=Leading Out of Turn.=_ If either adversary leads out of turn, the declarer may call the card exposed, or call a suit when it is the turn of either adversary to lead. If the declarer leads out of turn, from his own hand or dummy’s, there is no penalty, but he may not correct the error unless directed to do so by an adversary. If the second hand plays to the false lead, it must stand. If the declarer plays from his own hand or from dummy to a false lead, the trick stands. In case the dealer calls a suit and the player has none, the penalty is paid.
_=Cards Played in Error.=_ If any player but dummy omits to play to a trick, and does not correct the error until he has played to the next trick, the other side may claim a new deal. If the deal stands, the surplus card at the end is supposed to belong to the short trick, but is not a revoke.
_=OBJECT OF THE GAME.=_ The object in auction is for the declarer to fulfil his contract, and for the adversaries to defeat it. The highest card played to the trick, if of the suit led, wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits. At the end of the hand the declarer counts up the tricks he has won over the book and if he has made good on his contract he scores the value of those tricks toward game. As soon as either side reaches 30, it is a game, but the hands are played out, and all the tricks counted.
_=RUBBERS.=_ Three games, 30 points or more each, make a rubber, but if the first two are won by the same partners the third game is not played. The side that first wins two games adds 250 rubber points to its score.
_=SCORING.=_ Apart from the game score, which is made entirely by tricks won on successful declarations, there are several additional scores that have no influence in winning or losing the game, although they may materially affect the ultimate value of the rubber. These are all entered under the head of “honour scores,” or “above the line.”
_=Honours=_ are the five highest cards in the trump suit, A K Q J 10; when there is no trump, they are the four Aces. The partners holding three, four or five honours between them, or four honours in one hand, or four in one hand and the fifth in the partner’s, or all five in one hand, are entitled to claim and score them, according to the following table. It will be seen that their value varies according to the trump suit; and it must be remembered that this value cannot be increased by doubling.
TABLE OF HONOUR VALUES.
Royal spades are indicated by “R.”
+---+---+---+---+---+------- Declaration | ♠ | ♣ | ♢ | ♡ | R | No | | | | | | trump -------------------------------+---+---+---+---+---+------- Each Trick Above 6 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 -------------------------------+---+---+---+---+---+------- H { 3 Honours | 4 |12 |14 |16 |18 | 30 O { 4 Honours | 8 |24 |28 |32 |36 | 40 N { 4 Honours (All in 1 hand) |16 |48 |56 |64 |72 |100 O { 5 Honours |10 |30 |35 |40 |45 | U { 5 Honours (4 in 1 hand) |18 |54 |63 |72 |81 | R { 5 Honours (All in 1 hand) |20 |60 |70 |80 |90 | S {
Rubber 250, Grand Slam 40, Little Slam 20.
When one side has nothing but the odd honour, three out of the five, it is called _=simple honours=_. The value of simple honours is always the same as two tricks.
_=Slams.=_ Little Slam is made by taking twelve of the thirteen tricks; it counts 20 points. Grand Slam is made by taking the thirteen tricks, and it counts 40. Either score must be exclusive of revoke penalties.
_=PENALTIES.=_ If the declarer succeeds in making his contract, he scores below the line for tricks and above the line for honours according to the table of values already given, and he scores for as many tricks as he wins, regardless of the smaller number he may have bid.
But if the declarer fails to make good on his contract he scores nothing but honours as actually held, while his adversaries score 50 points penalty in the honour column for every trick by which the declaration falls short, no matter what the declaration was, but they never score anything toward game, no matter how many tricks they win, because they are not the declarers. They may, however, score slams.
If we suppose the winning declaration to be three hearts, and the declarer makes the odd trick only, holding simple honours, he scores 16 above the line, while the other side scores 100 points above the line for defeating the contract by two tricks, worth 50 each.
If the dealer is left in with one spade, he cannot lose more than 100 points, even if he is doubled, provided neither he nor his partner redouble. If the adversaries set the contract for one trick, the declarer loses 50 only, and even if he is set for six tricks, he can lose only the 100.
If any other declaration is doubled and fails, the adversaries score 100 points, instead of 50, for every trick by which they defeat the contract. If it is redoubled, they score 200. But if the declarer succeeds after being doubled, he not only scores double value for the tricks toward game, but he gets 50 points for fulfilling a doubled contract and 50 more for any tricks over his contract if he makes them. These figures are 100 in each case if he redoubles.
Suppose the declaration is three no trumps, doubled, and the declarer makes five by cards. He scores 5 times 20 toward game, aces as held, and then 150 in penalties, 50 of which is for fulfilling his contract and twice 50 for the two tricks over his contract.
_=KEEPING SCORE.=_ Two styles of score-pad are now in general use. In one the tricks and honours are entered in the same vertical column, one above the other, and are all added in one sum at the end. In the other style of pad the tricks are in one column and the honours and penalties in another, so that four additions are required to find the value of the rubber, which is always the difference between the total scores after giving the winners of two games 250 points. The following illustration will show both styles of pad:
WE ||THEY || 36 || 30 18 || 100 16 || ====++==== 8 || || 40 ----++---- || 36 ----++---- || 250 ----++---- 42 || 492 || 42 |+---- || 450
WE || THEY 8 | 16 || | | 18 || | 100 | || 40 | 30 ----+----++----+----- | || 36 | 36 ----+----++----+----- 8 | 34 || 76 | 166 | 8 || | 76 +----+| | 250 | 42 || +----- | || | 492 | || | 42 | || +----- | || | 450
The scoring on which this rubber is won and lost was as follows: WE started with a contract to win one heart and made it, with simple honours, scoring 8 toward game and 16 above for honours. Then THEY set a contract for two tricks, getting 100 in penalties, against simple honours in royals, scored as 18 above for WE and 100 for THEY. Then THEY made four odd at no trump and 30 aces, winning the first game, under which a line is drawn.
On the next deal THEY made four odd in royals, with four honours, 36 each way, winning the second game and also the rubber, for which they add 250 points. Both scores are now added up and the lower deducted from the higher, showing that THEY win 450 points on the balance.
_=CUTTING OUT.=_ At the conclusion of the rubber, if there are more than four candidates for play, the selection of the new table is made by cutting; those who have just played having an equal chance with the newcomers. The reason for this is that a Bridge table is complete with four, and that a rubber is usually too long, with its preliminaries of making the trump, and its finalities of settling the score, for players to wait their turn. A rubber at Short Whist is often over in two hands; but a carefully played rubber at Bridge sometimes occupies an hour.
_=CHEATING.=_ Most of the cheating done at the bridge table is of such a character that it cannot be challenged without difficulty, although there is enough of it to be most annoying.
Some players will place an ace about four cards from the top when they shuffle the cards, so that when the pack is spread for the cut they can draw it and get the first deal. Second dealing is a common trick, especially on ocean steamers, marking the aces and slipping them back if they would fall to an adversary dealing them to the partner instead, who can go no trumps and score a hundred aces several times in an evening. Women are great offenders in trifling matters, such as asking the dealer if she passed it, when nothing has been said; looking over the adversaries’ hands as dummy, and then pushing dummy’s cards forward, as if arranging them, but in reality indicating which one to play. A great deal of petty cheating is done in putting down the score, and also in balancing it by cancellation. In large charity games, some women are so eager to win a prize that they will stoop to all manner of private signals, and some go so far as to make up a table and agree to double everything, so that some one of the four shall have a big score. Another common trick in so-called social games is to have a stool pigeon to overlook the hand of another and signal it up to the confederate who is playing.
There may be some remedy for this sort of thing, but so far no one seems to have found it; or at least they lack the courage to put it in practice and expose the offenders.
_=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ The great secret of success in auction lies in sound bidding, so that no bid shall have a double meaning and the partner may be able to rely absolutely on the information which the bid should convey. The complications of the situation are so numerous, owing to the variations introduced by each succeeding bid as the players over-call one another, that it would be impossible to cover them in a work of this kind, and the student would do well to consult some such work as “Whitehead’s Conventions,” which covers every situation that could possibly arise in the bidding.
A few general hints may be of assistance in showing the principles that govern the more common situations.
_=The Dealer’s Bids=_ may be divided into four parts; a spade, a losing suit, a winning suit, and no trumps. The one-spade bid simply means, “I pass,” but it does not signify that he will not be willing to bid on the second round. It has nothing whatever to do with the spade suit.
The dealer should never call any suit on the first round of bids unless he has two sure tricks in it. If it is a losing suit, he may have just those two tricks and nothing else, and the shorter the suit the better, but the tricks must be A K, or K Q J, or A Q J. If it is a winning suit he must have at least five cards of it and a trick or two in some other suit to back it up.
If the dealer bids two spades, he shows two sure tricks in a short spade suit and a sure trick outside. If he bids three spades he shows five or more spades and strength enough outside for royals, but denies two sure tricks in the spade suit itself. The dealer should bid no trumps when he has not length enough to bid hearts or royals, but has a hand as good as three aces, well protected in three suits.
_=The Second Hand=_ should declare just as if he were the dealer when the dealer starts with one spade. He may even go no trump on a lighter hand. When the dealer bids a suit, second hand should over-call only when he can make his contract or wishes to indicate a lead in case third hand should go to no trumps. Second hand should never take the dealer out of a losing suit with a winning suit unless he has seven tricks in his own hand. If the dealer bids no trump, second hand should pass, unless he is prepared to over-call any further bid for three tricks.
_=Third Hand=_ is not obliged to take the dealer out of a spade, and should not do so unless he is a trick or two stronger than he would have to be to declare as dealer. But the dealer must never be left in with a two or three spade bid. If third hand cannot do any better, he should declare a royal. When the dealer bids no trump, third hand should take him out with any weak five card suit and nothing else, simply to warn him that there are no winning cards in the hand. Always take him out with five cards in a winning suit, no matter how strong the rest of the hand.
Take the dealer out of one suit with another suit only to deny his suit. Take him out of a winning suit with no trump, only to deny his suit and show strength in each of the three other suits. If the dealer bids no trump and second hand calls a suit, double if you can stop the suit twice, otherwise show any good suit of your own, but do not go two no-trumps unless you can do it all yourself. Leave that to your partner. Do not assist your partner’s suit bids with less than three tricks if second hand over-calls.
_=Fourth Hand=_ bids on the bidding much more than on his cards. He should never take the dealer out of a spade that both second and third hand have passed unless he can go game. If the dealer bids a losing suit, second and third hands passing, leave him in unless you can go game and are not afraid of a shift. If the dealer bids a winning suit, second and third hands passing, make any sound declaration. If the dealer starts with no trumps, show any suit that might save the game if led at once by your partner.
_=Subsequent Bids.=_ Any suit bid on the second round but not on the first, shows length without the tops. When a winning suit is taken out by the partner, a losing suit bid on the second round shows tops in it. Any suit rebid on the second round, without waiting for the partner’s assistance, shows six or seven sure tricks in hand.
Never bid a hand twice, unless its strength is greater than indicated by the first bid. Having bid a club on ace king alone, that is the end of it. If you have an outside ace, which the club bid did not show, you can assist your partner once on that trick, but no more. Having assisted your partner’s suit bid with three tricks, do not bid again unless you have a fourth trick in hand, but if he rebids his suit without waiting for you, you may assist on one trick, especially a high honour in trumps.
Do not double unless you have a certainty and are not afraid of a shift. Do not give up a fair chance for going game yourself just to double an adversary, unless you are sure of 200 in penalties at least, and do not give up the rubber game for less than 300. Always remember that a double may enable an adversary to go game, and will often show the declarer which hand to finesse against.