R. F. Foster

“ There is a great difference between playing against a trump declaration and against no-trumpers; because in the first case the leader is opposed to unusual trump strength and his object must be to make what he can of his winning cards, before the declarer gets into the lead and discards his weak suits, so as to be ready to trump them. But in the second case, there being no trumps, the leader’s object should be to get a suit established against the dealer, if he can, and the longer the suit is, the better. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Free Doubles are opportunities to double when the declarer will go game anyhow if he makes his contract, but they should never be made if there is any chance that he may shift.
Free Bids are anything better than a spade by the dealer, or anything that over-calls a previous bid, because no one is forced to bid on the first round. A Shout is a bid that is a trick more than necessary to over-call the previous bid. It shows a solid suit, or five or six sure tricks in hand. In a losing suit it is a loud call for the partner to go no trumps if he can. A free bid in a losing suit shows the high cards ”

“ 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. ”

“ Humbug Whist is a variety of double-dummy, in which the players may exchange their hands for those dealt to the dummies, and the dealer may sometimes make the trump to suit himself. German Whist is played by two persons, and introduces the element of replenishing the hand after each trick by drawing cards from the remainder of the pack until the stock is exhausted. Chinese Whist is double-dummy for two, three, or four persons, only half of each player’s cards being exposed, the others being turned up as the exposed cards are got rid of in the course of play. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The dealer’s partner is always the dummy, and either side may score toward game by making the odd trick or more. Auction bridge, in which the privilege of making the trump is bid for, the highest bidder playing the hand with his partner as dummy, regardless of the position of the deal, and his side being the only one that can score toward game, the adversaries scoring nothing but penalties in the honour column if they defeat the contract. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 your partner has declared a suit, lead the best card you hold of it, regardless of number, unless you have an ace-king suit of your own, in which case lead the king first and have a look at dummy. If partner has not declared anything, lead your own suit. With high cards not in sequence, such as ace-queen, king-jack, or even queen-ten, in every suit but trumps, lead the trump. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The dealer’s strength in a no-trumper is usually scattered, and he may often be found with a weak or missing suit, which is generally the suit in which the eldest hand or his partner is long.
We shall first consider the leads against trump declarations, because they are more common and are also the more useful. If a player makes a trump-hand lead against a no-trump declaration, he will not do nearly so much harm as if he make a no-trump-hand lead against a trump declaration. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The average value of a rubber at auction is about 400 points. Any much larger figure shows bad bidding. In straight bridge the average is about 180. In settling at the end of the rubber, it is usual for each losing player to pay his right-hand adversary.
MAKING THE TRUMP. In auction, the dealer begins by naming any one of the four suits, or no trumps, for any number of tricks he pleases. Each player in turn to the left then has the privilege of passing, bidding higher, or doubling. When three players pass a bid, it is the highest made and is known as the Winning Declaration or Contract. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is only when the two players that have both named the winning suit are not partners that the higher bidder becomes the declarer.
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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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The pupils of such a teacher pass on to others the game thus imperfectly learnt, and in a short time we have a number of corruptions creeping in, and the astonishing part of it is the [xvi] insistence with which some persons will maintain that they alone have the right idea of the rules, just because so-and-so showed them the game, or because they and their immediate friends have “always played it that way.” ”

“ Many of these works devote much space to a certain game, which is evidently the compiler’s pet, and which is accurately described; while other and equally important games are full of errors and omissions, betraying a lamentable want of care in consulting the literature of the subject. ”

“ Solo Whist is an attempt to simplify Boston by reducing the number of proposals and the complications of payments, and eliminating the feature of ‘spreads.’ Scotch Whist introduces a special object in addition to winning tricks—catching the ten of trumps; that card and the honours having particular values attached to them. This variety of whist may be played by any number of persons from two to eight; and its peculiarity is that when a small number play, each has several distinct hands, which must be played in regular order, as if held by different players. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Whether or not this game will ever become as popular as the combination of dealer and dummy, it is difficult to say, but appearances are against it.
There seems to be a growing tendency in America to adopt the English rule of cutting out the spade suit at 2 a trick, and making it always a royal spade, worth 9. The dealer is allowed to pass without making a bid, the lowest call being one club. If all pass, the deal goes to the left. ”

“ Although Hoyle died more than a hundred years ago, his work has been constantly added to as new games came into vogue, which has led many to believe that he is the authority for games that he never heard of, such as pinochle and poker. ”

“ About 1910 it became the fashion not to play spades, it being considered a waste of time to play a hand for such a small amount as 2 points a trick, so the dealer was allowed to score 2 for the odd and 4 for honours, regardless of how the cards were distributed, the hand being abandoned. The objection to this practice was that many hands were worth much more than 2 points, and in some cases the spade make would have gone game at the score. ”

“ In order to understand the principles that govern the players in their declarations, one should be thoroughly familiar with the values attached to the tricks when certain suits are trumps. The first six tricks taken by the side that has made the winning declaration do not count. ”