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Show :;y ji Modern Contract Bridge B Lcfia Hattersiey I) No. 5 Distributional Values WHEN your hand indicates that a suit take-out is the best policy, but the sum of your honor-tricks i3 below the yardstick measurement for game, you should declare only a sufficient suf-ficient number of tricks to cover your partner's bid. In taking out with a no trump, use the yardstick measurement, measure-ment, bidding one or two no trumps according to the Indications of your partnership holding in honor-tricks. In short whenever you are taking out and it is still uncertain' whether your partnership hands will prove congenial at your new bid, you must tread gingerly unless the sum of your honor-tricks spells "GAME." Often however, when your partner has made an original suit bid of one, there may enter Into your response a factor which justifies you In totally disregarding the yardstick measurement measure-ment of honor-tricks, so important In most responses. This factor is the distribution of your hand. If your hand is so favorably distributed as to show great length in your partner's suit, length in a second suit and complete com-plete absence of a third, as for example: ex-ample: S-Q1098 7 6, H-5, D-none, C-10 C-10 9 8 6 5 3, when your partner has bid i a spade, you could ignore your lack of honor-tricks and Jump Immediately Into a game bid. Such a proceeding would be Justified by the fact that your spade strength would so solidify your partner's trump holding as to promise no losers in that suit ; your length in clubs offers the probability of setting up some end cards or giving giv-ing your partner repeated ruffing opportunities, op-portunities, and most important of all in compensating for your deficit of honor-tricks, your short and missing suits would enable you to trump off your opponent's defensive strength in honor-tricks. It is certain that no more than one honor-trick In hearts could be cashed against you, and none at all in diamonds. So that even though your partnership total of honor-tricks sums up only to the 2 which your partner's original bid guaranteed, your practical certainty of breaking down the opponent's defense de-fense is equivalent to a strong honor-trick honor-trick holding when reckoned for its assisting value to your partner. Playing Tricks As a rule the last thing that a contract con-tract player learns is the most Important Im-portant thing he should know. That Is, how to count the playing tricks In his hand. Playing tricks are the general, tricks your own hand may be expected to take if your declaration or your partner's declaration becomes final. When making an opening bid at no trumps, it Is rarely possible to locate lo-cate playing tricks, other than honor-tricks, because you have no definite long strong suit to establish. (With a biddable suit you would not declare de-clare no trump.) But the count of honor-tricks in the hand will automatically auto-matically include a proportionate amount of low card tricks. When shifting into a no trump, or entering a later stage of the bidding with a no trump declaration, it Is often possible to count definite playing play-ing tricks according to the location of strength shown by others bids or by the fact of a strong minor suit in your own or your partner's hand which can be set up. But for opening no trump bids and no trump raises and reblds, there is no better guide than the wardstick count of honor-tricks. honor-tricks. The direct and simple method of counting honor-tricks, so helpful in valuing no trumps, will not answer for raises and rebids at declared trumps, which must be played under totally different conditions. As a matter mat-ter of fact, the difference In play of no trump and suit hands creates two almost totally different games ; so that a separate system of valuation must necessarily be used for each. The count of playing tricks at a suit bid is an easy matter for a player play-er of long experience and Judgment i Fortunately for the average player. In the approach-forcing system what Is an unconscious mental process with the expert has been translated into a concrete form known as the distributional dis-tributional count The distributional count may be mastered In half an hour's study, and once clearly comprehended, com-prehended, enables any team of players play-ers to value their hands at suit bids with the precision of experts. ( 1932, by Leila Hatterslsr.) (WNU BerTlco) |