Auction Bridge for Three

Some Interesting Variations of the Game, When a Fourth Player Is Missing

R. F. FOSTER

PROBABLY few persons are aware that auction bridge was originally designed as a game for three players only, and was confined to that number for several years The game was invented by the mother of all inventions, necessity. Three members of the British Indian Civil Service were practically the only white men in one of the lonely hill stations, and were unable to get a fourth to make up a table for bridge, which was then the game. This was in 1902.

One of the three, F. R. Roe, had written some brochures on whist and bridge, but the best the three could do was to play cut-throat, each man for himself. Getting tired of this, they put forward a number of suggestions and tried out various ways of making changes in the old game of bridge, until one of them, who was familiar with the Russian game of Vint, suggested that they should bid for the declaration, instead of having the dealer the only one who could name it, which was the rule in bridge. This seemed to give the required snap to the game, bidding with the dummy's cards all turned down, and they christened it "Auction Bridge".

The first notice of the innovation appeared in a letter to the London Times, January 16, 1903, which purported to be a description of "A New Game of Auction Bridge, for Three Players." It never seems to have occurred to anyone that it would be just as good a game for four.

AS THREE-HAND auction was first played, only one round of bids was allowed, the dealer being compelled to bid something and being allowed a second bid if he were over-called. His adversaries could not overcall this second bid, if it was made, but they could either double or halve the value of the tricks. There was no redouble. The highest bidder took the dummy, which had so far remained on the table face down.

In 1904 the Pioneer Press, in Allabad, published a little book by "John Doe," the pen name assumed by F. R. Roe, in which the bidding was allowed to continue, as at present, until two players passed, but it was still a game for three players only.

In spite of this publicity, no one seemed to take to the game, probably because it was an easy matter to get a fourth and play bridge. The Bath Club, in London, of which I was then a member, did not like the gamble on a concealed dummy, but they liked the competitive bidding, and they tried the game with four players. In the following year, 1905, I published a description of the game for four players in the appendix to Foster's Complete Bridge, on page 276, among other variations, such as Misery, Short Bridge, and Reversi, which were then known.

Still no one took any notice of the game, even for four players, and it was not until April 4, 1906, that a letter appeared in the London Daily Mail giving my rules for the game, and strongly advising bridge players to try it. Up to this time no one outside the Bath Club played it, and for nearly two years the new game of auction bridge was looked upon as a sort of freak.

In 1907 I gave several talks to our leading card clubs, giving my reasons for thinking it a better game than bridge, and wrote articles about it in the old New York Sun, but The Whist Club of New York, then our leading authority for the laws, turned it down as "placing one too much at the mercy of the partner." It was not until 1908 that Mr. Du Cane got the leading card club in London, the Portland, to try the game, andxaf-ter that it quickly superseded bridge in London, and more slowly here.

THE MODERN THREE-HAND GAME

As occasions still frequently arise when a fourth player is missing or being waited for, several ways of playing three-hand have come into vogue, in addition to the original method of bidding on thirteen cards with the dummy's turned face down. In this magazine for July, 1921, a game for three players was described which gave variations in the scoring that made each deal a complete game in itself, settled for at once, so as to be ready for the fourth player the moment he arrived. As this was merely to fill up the time, it was appropriately named "Stop Gap" by its inventor, Mr. Walter Nettleton, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Some months later an improvement on stopgap was suggested that eliminated the gamble on the concealed dummy, as the dummy's cards were all turned face up before any bidding was started. This game was described in this magazine for October, 1921, as "Dummy Up".

THE LATEST IDEAS

IT IS obvious that if no fourth player is expected, the game for three players can be scored in the usual way, keeping the three individual scores separately, lumping the trick, honour, and bonus scores in one sum at the end of each deal, adding 200 for a game won on the deal. The winner scores the exact amount, and each adversary is charged with that amount as a loss.

The exposed dummy game had two defects. It made the bidding for one player or another too much of a certainty, and it disclosed to the others just what he wanted for the trump, as the original bid must always be in suit, never in no-trump. After that, the players can bid anything. It also opened the way for a player to show a defensive suit when he had no hope of getting the contract, so that no matter which of the two others became the declarer, his partner would know what to lead, or what would be led.

To remedy this, the latest idea is to adopt one or other of several methods that are a compromise. One is to deal only twelve cards to each player and to leave the last four in the centre of the table, face down. Only twelve of the dummy's cards are exposed, and each player has to bid on his twelve. The highest bidder then lays his cards down, picks up the widow, chooses one card from it to complete his hand, names the trump, and lets his two adversaries each draw a card from the remaining three, the last one going to the dummy.

Another way is to give each player thirteen cards, but to withdraw four of those dealt to the dummy and turn up the remaining nine. At the conclusion of the bidding all four are turned up and added to the dummy's hand. Here is an illustration of this method. The dummy is dealt to the dealer's left; at "A",

The dealer can sec that independently of any luck in dummy's concealed cards he can make four diamonds or four spades. He must lose a spade, no matter how that suit lies, a heart and a diamond. He starts with one diamond. Y passes. B can count on a small slam in clubs if they drop in three leads, and a heart discard on the third spade in dummy. This is also regardless of what he finds. He bids two clubs.

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When four clubs overcall three diamonds, Z sees it is time to shift, as four spades is game, and game in diamonds is now remote. He bids four spades. This alarms B, who sees that Z may have no clubs, in which case, barring the luck of the dummy, they will not drop, but he can still make five, which he bids, as that is game. Z goes to five spades, to save game and to take a chance that dummy has something. Now B makes his shift and bids five no-trumps.

Dummy remains in its place, between Z and Y. The four concealed cards are the four and three of hearts; five and four of diamonds. On the play, the first lead of clubs marks Y with jack ten eight, so that B has to give up the hope of his heart discard in order to get dummy in twice to come through the clubs twice; but he makes five odd.

BIDDING BY POINTS

The latest of all ways of playing This was the distribution in Problem LXXX:—

Hearts are trumps and Z leads. Y and Z want four tricks against any defence. This is how they get them:

Z leads the seven of diamonds and Y lets it hold. Z follows with the club ten, A plays the jack, and Y discards the spade five, instead of trumping. B sheds a spade. A leads a small trump, putting B in, and B leads spade eight, which Z covers with the nine.

If A trumps low, Y overtrumps and leads either of his diamonds, which Z trumps with the queen of hearts, and ,Y's jack of trumps is safe whatever A does next.

Observe that if Y trumps the club, three-hand is not to mention the suits at all, but to bid as many points as one will undertake to make in trick values, undoubled. This must be some number between 6 and 70, each bid being higher than the last.

In the distribution just given the dealer would start with a bid of 6. This might be on anything. B goes at once to 18, which might be spades or clubs or no-trumps. Z bids 20, and B keeps to the multiple of spades to conceal his hand, bidding 27. Then Z bids 30, abandoning the idea of diamonds. B now knows Z is all spades and diamonds, and to force him to bid a little slam, which B will double, B bids 50, which holds. He declares no trump, exposes dummy, and makes his bid, 50 below the line, by the play already given.

Bidding by points can, of course, be applied to any form of the threehand game, and it has even been tried, with some degree of success, in the ordinary game for four players, but lacks team work in bidding.

ANSWER TO THE FEBRUARY PROBLEM

instead of discarding, B will overtrump and A will trump a spade, leading ace and a small trump, so that he must make his ten of trumps later. On the other hand, if A trumps the spade in the trunk play with the ace, Y discards, and A loses both his small trumps, as Z will trump the club if A leads it.

If A returns the club, instead of the trump at trick 3, Y discards and B trumps. B leads a spade and A trumps with the same result as in the trunk play. If B does not trump, Z trumps and leads a small trump, and all A can make is the ace of trumps.

If Z leads the trump instead of the club for the second trick, the defence is to let A trump B's spade lead with the eight of hearts, and follow with the jack of clubs, which Y must trump, making A's ten of trumps safe for another trick, together with his ace.

If Z leads the spade nine for the second trick, the defence is for A to trump with the six of hearts and lead the jack of clubs. If Y trumps, B will over-trump. Now B has a winning spade to lead, on which A will discard the small club. If Y trumps the spade, A makes two of his trumps against any play.