J. B. Elwell

“ All time at Bridge should be devoted earnestly to what confronts a player, not to what is past.
It is better not to play at all, than to play without earnestness.
One careful game is worth any number of slipshod, careless efforts which are disconcerting to your partner, and the delight of your adversaries. ”

“ Clubs is a safer declaration, holding four with two honours, than spades, when but one or two are held without an honour.
Luck is a false friend and only stays with you until you are in trouble.
A poor player is most a poor player when he knows not that he is a poor player. ”

“ The dummy hand, in declaring the trump, should keep in mind the general rules suggested for the dealer, and be governed in his choice by the state of the score, by the general strength of his hand, and by the dealer’s acknowledged weakness.
A speculative spirit is so strong in some players that they find it difficult to resist announcing a make which they know to be unsound, yet with which they hope, by a fortuitous combination of circumstances, to win. Often the result of one hand, which proves nothing, will encourage this tendency toward unsound makes. ”

“ Any player during the play of a trick, or after the four cards are played and before they are touched for the purpose of gathering them together, may demand that the cards be placed before their respective players.
If either of the dealer's adversaries, prior to his partner's playing, should call attention to the trick, either by saying it is his, or, without being requested so to do, by naming his card or drawing it toward him, the dealer may require that opponent's partner to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led, or to win or lose the trick. ”

“ Why play in the dark, when by leading the king of your ace king suit, you are in a position to hold the lead until you have seen dummy and can judge as to the advisability of the weak lead? A suit headed by king queen is also a safer opening than a short lead, which may establish the suit for the dealer; although, if you hold an honour that will stop the adversaries’ trump lead, say an ace or a guarded king, you are almost certain to be in the lead before the dealer has an opportunity to discard worthless cards on his established suit. ”

“ A theory of good play may be so unfortunately worded as to convey a mistaken impression, and it is amusing to hear the various methods of discarding discussed by players of little experience; not long since, a hand was published to illustrate the loss of one trick by discarding strength, when an ace is first lost by bad play, and the discard so palpably wrong as to insult the partner’s intelligence. ”

“ The dealer’s play of the twenty-six cards is undoubtedly the most interesting that Bridge offers; the skilful management and keen perception required to combine the two hands against adversaries ready to take advantage of the slightest error, make this part of the game correspondingly difficult. With no partner to mislead, the dealer can use strategy to deceive the opponents, while he gains the same information from each adversary’s play as if he were the partner of both. ”

“ The greatest weakness and the most expensive fault in the beginner’s game is his predilection for trumping in the strong trump hand. When trumps are hopelessly against you, it may be necessary to make what [Pg 143] you can by ruffing, but with the advantage of the make, you are seldom compelled to play a defensive game. When you needlessly force your strong hand to trump, you reduce your power to exhaust the adversaries’ trumps, to establish your suit, and to be left with the last trump—which is, par excellence, the dealer’s game. ”

“ If, as leader, your long suit is worthless, and your hand is generally weak, there is a chance that your short suit may prove to be your partner’s long one, and that the lead may help him to establish his suit. While the odds are two to one against the success of a short lead, in this case it may gain and certainly cannot lose much. If, however, you hold five or six cards in your suit, open it; there is always a chance that your partner may hold sufficient length in the same suit to help you establish and bring it in. ”

“ If you were to play a hundred deals of “no-trump” hands, making the first discard from the weak suit, and then replay the hands making the first discard from strength, the result would be overwhelmingly in favour of the strength discard. It is impossible to make the first discard from weakness uniformly without unguarding honours in the adversaries’ suits, and only the novice attempts to do so.
To say that one should always make the discard from weakness or from strength is wrong both in theory and in practise. No hard-and-fast rule can be followed without loss. ”

“ It is a far greater source of enjoyment than lackadaisically wading through deal after deal, stirring only the surface of the shallow water and not venturing into those more fascinating depths where the secrets of bridge await those who will try for them. ”

“ To those who have not taken the time to analyse hands thoroughly, the discard of a card that may possibly make, naturally seems the waste of a trick; but consider how seldom a suit, not led originally, is brought in against a “no-trump” make; remember that you do not expect to win on the adversary’s make, but only hope to minimise your loss, and that often in trying to save all the cards of your long suit, honours in the weaker suits are unguarded which, if properly protected, would have won tricks. ”

“ Usually it is not safe to double a “no-trump” make unless you hold a suit that you are reasonably sure is established. It is a gamble to double with a six-card suit headed by ace, king, and queen with no other trick in the hand. You depend on your partner to take one trick, which he may not be able to do; and, should you find your long suit protected in the adversaries’ hands, you run the risk of being very badly beaten. If the odd trick wins the game for the adversaries and does not win it for you, such a double may be justifiable ”

“ When you hold eight cards to the ace, king, and jack in the two hands, the adversary’s queen is frequently unguarded. Finessing then becomes a question of the score and of the possible loss that an unsuccessful finesse would entail. You should risk the loss of a trick in order to win the game, provided the loss of a trick does not lose the game. If the game cannot be won, and it is merely a question of winning or not winning the odd trick, do not finesse. That one trick may prevent the adversaries from winning the game on the next deal. ”

“ It is only the experienced player who can resist the temptation to overtrump. The beginner jumps at every trick without realising that he can often gain by waiting. Overtrump when your hand is weak and your trumps low; but, if overtrumping takes out your only high card in the trump suit, especially if it is the commanding trump, it is nearly always better to discard. Your winning trump is bound to make, and it is better play to throw away a suit that you can ruff later with one of your small trumps. ”

“ There is always trouble for the player who is looking only for “what he deserves,” and complacently assists the strategy of his opponents by not meeting it with an equal display of skill in attack, or shrewdness in defense.
Good players are frequently likely to be deceived by holding up small cards, though as a matter of fact novices never appear to be fooled by such tactics; play a high card like a King or a Queen, however, and the poor player is decidedly apt to be frightened away from the play of his own suit. ”

“ The fundamental idea of leading through strength is to help your partner to make his high cards by allowing him to play after the exposed hand. “Leading through” means to make a person play second hand to the trick. You always lead through your left hand adversary.
Should your partner hold K J x with A Q x in dummy, it is obvious that if you lead through the suit, your partner may win two tricks, whereas if he is forced to lead up to the strength, one trick at least would be lost. Players will often say, “How can I know that my partner has any high cards in that suit?” ”

“ As there are three declarations of greater value than either clubs or spades, unless there is a reasonable chance to win the game, black makes should not be considered. Your partner may be able to make a red or a “no-trump” declaration, and, failing these, his defensive black declaration may suit your hand. There are unpleasant occasions when you hold a strong club hand and your partner declares spades. When the make has been doubled and you have little strength to support it, you are very apt to regret that you did not make an original club. ”

“ Certain rules, that govern the technicalities, are absolute, as they are in any game of cards, but rules in general are not the masters of bridge; rather should they be considered as second to circumstance and the fall of the cards. Brilliant plays are made in contravention to rules, yet we would not attempt to deduce from that fact the theory that rules are not essential to the game.
There are those disaffected individuals who rail at everything. To them rules are bogey men; conventions are pitfalls. ”

“ Never forget that the dealer is in the possession of the strength of twenty-six cards all the time. If you, with half that force, play at random, and your partner, with no more numerical strength than you possess, is also playing a fourth of the game on his individual account, with no particular interest in what is being done with the other three-fourths of the fifty-two cards, it is surely not common sense to imagine that you and your partner are likely to be superlatively blessed with success. ”

“ As spades are made for safety, occasions for doubling the spade declaration obviously arise more frequently than any other; yet players are prone to go to extremes in doubling spade hands, for, while it does not require much strength to double a defensive spade declaration, there is always a possibility of great trump strength in the adversaries’ hands.
Do not double the make of hearts, diamonds, or clubs without some strength in the trump suit; as high cards, particularly if the suits are long, may be trumped, strength in the side suits alone is unreliable. ”

“ It is rarely wrong to lead from a sequence, especially from one of three high cards. If you hold no sequence of three, perhaps those containing two honours in sequence, such as king queen, queen jack, or even jack ten, may be classed as good openings. Often when you hold no high card sequence, the lead is a disadvantage; experience shows that you make more tricks in a suit if it is led to you; for that reason it is often advisable to refrain from opening tenace suits or suits with a single honour. ”