Kitabı oku: «Bridge Axioms and Laws», sayfa 2

The occupant of the "high-chair" usually has a monopoly for giving advice.

Let your manner be uniformly such that no one can tell from it whether you are winning or losing.

Play Bridge with an eloquent silence; it will command both respect and admiration.

An occasional mistake is preferable to an irritating delay.

Slow play is, more or less, a habit. Its effect amounts to a fault.

When there is an unusual distribution of the cards, remarks are superfluous.

Indecision may tell your adversaries exactly what they are most eager to know.

Deliberation at the beginning of a hand is permissible and should be encouraged.

The player who interrupts the game to discuss the play should be ostracised from the card room.

Make no overt remarks during the play which may tend to give the adversaries information.

It is usually the inexperienced player who offers an astonishing amount of gratuitous and un-sought-for advice.

It is often difficult to refrain from showing pleasure at the accomplishment of a desired purpose, but consider that undue elation is most aggravating to the adversaries.

Post-mortems have their interest and, as a rule, are unmistakably convincing.

Do not venture upon a post-mortem unless you are certain of what the scalpel is going to reveal.

Do not continue to talk of harassing details when another hand is awaiting play.

General rules are formulated as an assistance to intelligent play.

Many brilliant plays are made in contravention to rules.

Certain laws that govern the technicalities are absolute, but rules in general are not the masters of Bridge.

Rules should be considered second to circumstances and to the fall of the cards.

There are hands in Bridge which may be said to play themselves.

All Bridge penalties should be strictly enforced.

You gather the cards when your partner takes the first trick.

Do not ask to have the cards placed unless it is solely for your own information.

A player has not the right to have the cards placed after they have been touched for the purpose of gathering them.

It is unfair to revoke purposely, or to make a second revoke in order to conceal the first.

The revoking side cannot win the game on that hand, nor score more than 28 points.

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.

Lost tricks yield a crop of experience attained at the expense of rubbers.

Inattention is a companion that will never travel alone.

People who find it easy to decide for friends find it hard to decide for themselves.

People who have lots of advice to give dislike to take any.

The man who plays Bridge when he is angry is sure to make a mistake.

There is some hope for the player who discovers he can be mistaken.

Improvement comes from avoiding other people's mistakes.

He who plays the best talks the least of what he is doing.

Don't spend time grieving over a lost rubber that should be used in playing the next.

Sometimes one hasty play will overthrow the results of a carefully planned game.

Discouragement should make the player more resolute.

Preserve us from the bore who insists on turning conversation into argument.

It is the critical who are most sensitive to criticism.

The best way to deal with bad luck is to bear it gracefully.

The best players are always patient with the novice.

There are those who teach one Bridge because they play so badly.

Many people are so busy playing that they don't pause to think how they are playing.

Many call "bad luck" that which is only neglect to improve opportunity.

He who is too busy to consider his faults will never take time to mend them.

Those who think the least have the most time to criticise.

The expertness of the player who is at the pains to announce it may be doubted.

Some people ask for criticism but grow angry if it is adverse.

It is not so much your Bridge knowledge, but the use you make of it, that counts.

The novice plays before he thinks, the expert thinks before he plays.

The silent player, like the dog that bites without growling, gets the best hold on the game.

There are people so absorbed in their own Bridge perfection that it is impossible for them to see merit in anyone else.

A good way to succeed in Bridge is to observe what is most successful with others.

THE LAWS OF BRIDGE
Revised 1907

THE RUBBER

The partners first winning two games win the rubber. If the first two games be won by the same partners, the third game is not played.

SCORING

A game consists of thirty points obtained by tricks alone, exclusive of any points counted for honours, Chicane, or Slam.

Every hand is played out, and any points in excess of thirty points necessary for the game are counted.

Each trick above six counts two points when spades are trumps, four points when clubs are trumps, six points when diamonds are trumps, eight points when hearts are trumps, and twelve points when there are no trumps.

Honours are ace, king, queen, knave, and ten of the trump suit; or the aces when no-trump is declared.

Honours are credited to the original holders and are valued as follows:

If a player and his partner make thirteen tricks, independently of any tricks gained by the revoke penalty, they score Grand Slam and add forty points to their honour count.

Little Slam is twelve tricks similarly scored, and adds twenty points to the honour count.

Chicane (one hand void of trumps) is equal in value to three honours, i. e., if partner of player having Chicane scores honours he adds the value of three honours to his honour score, while, if the adversaries score honours, it deducts an equal value from their honour score. Double Chicane (a player and his partner both void of trumps) is equal in value to four honours, and the value thereof may be deducted from the total honour score of the adversaries.

The value of honours, Slam, Little Slam, or Chicane, is in no wise affected by doubling or re-doubling.

At the conclusion of a rubber the scores for tricks, honours, Chicane, and Slam, obtained by each side, are added, and one hundred points are added to the score of the winners of the rubber. The difference between the completed scores is the number of points won or lost by the winners of the rubber.

If an erroneous score affecting tricks be proven, such mistake must be corrected prior to the conclusion of the game in which it has occurred, and such game shall not be considered as concluded until the following deal has been completed and the trump declared, unless it be that the game is the last one of the rubber, – then the score is subject to inquiry until an agreement between the sides (as to the value of the rubber) shall have been reached.

If an erroneous score affecting honours, Chicane, or Slam be proven, such mistake may be corrected at any time before the score of the rubber has been made up and agreed upon.

CUTTING

In cutting, the ace is the lowest card and, as between cards of otherwise equal value, the lowest is the heart, next the diamond, next the club, and highest the spade.

In all cases every player must cut from the same pack.

Should a player expose more than one card, he must cut again.

FORMING TABLES

The prior right of playing is with those first in the room. If there are more than four candidates for seats at a table, the privilege of playing is decided by cutting. The four who cut the lowest cards play first.

After the table is formed, the players cut to decide on partners; the two lowest play against the two highest. The lowest is the dealer, who has choice of cards and seats, and who, having once made his selection, must abide by it.

Six players constitute a full table, and no player shall have a right to cut into a game which is complete.

When there are more than six candidates, the right to succeed any player who may retire is acquired by announcing the desire to do so, and such announcement shall constitute a prior right to the first vacancy.

CUTTING OUT

At the end of a rubber, should admission be claimed by one or two candidates, the player or players having played a greater number of consecutive rubbers shall withdraw; but when all have played the same number, they must cut to decide upon the outgoers; the highest are out.