New slants on the Vanderbilt club

R. J. LEIBENDERFER

An expert makes an attempt at clarifying a convention in Contract Bridge which is more or less misunderstood

■ No one can say, in the ironic slang of the day, that Harold S. Vanderbilt, as a

yachtsman, is a good contract player, or that as a contract player he is a good yachtsman. The world knows what he has done for yachting. It also knows that he can justly he considered the "father" of modern contract. As the doner of the Vanderbilt Contract Trophy, he has placed in competition an emblem of team supremacy that will entitle its annual winners to be regarded as the National Contract Champions. Mr. Vanderbilt has a further claim to fame as the originator of both the Vanderbilt Count and the Club Convention.

As the recent developments of this convention, the most widely known of all contract conventions, are still more or less misunderstood, the following summary of its later phases—as given by Mr. Vanderbilt to the writer—should prove interesting. In effect, Mr. Vanderbilt says that:—

■ An original One-Club bid, under the Vanderbilt Convention, means a good many

more things than an ordinary one-club bid. It means one of the following things:

(1) The bidder demands-a take-out.

(2) It is a bid made irrespective of the declarer's holding in clubs.

(3) It is based on a minimum of three quick tricks. An ace, or a king queen, equals 1 quick trick; a guarded king (except by a queen) equals ½ a quick trick; an ace, king in the same suit equals 2 quick tricks.

(4) It makes a two-club original bid the equivalent of a one-club regulation bid.

(5) It implies that the bidder has not a two-suit hand or one with potential stoppers in all four suits.

(6) It indicates, particularly when vulnerable, a reasonable reserve suit or a possible no-trump bid.

It must also be remembered that an adverse double, or an adverse overbid of any sort, breaks the chain of the convention and restores the regulation system of bidding. Consequently, a one-diamond overbid by partner —following an adverse double by an opponent indicates strength, or length, in the diamond suit.

After a one-club bid, followed by an adversary "pass", the obligatory one-diamond overbid by partner means one of the following things:— 1. It expects a take-out. 2. It is bid irrespective of any diamond holding. 3. It denies two quick tricks in the hand, or any inherent slam probabilities.

There is, also, a corollary to the Club Convention which is scarcely less important than the Convention itself. It concerns no-trumpers, and is simple enough: Never bid an original no-trump without a prospective guard in all four suits, nor with a singleton Ace. By a "prospective guard" I mean an Ace, a King-x; a Queen-x; or Knave-9-x-x. The Queen and one, against an opening lead in that suit, is almost as good a guard as the Queen and two. To require the Queen and two would too much restrict the use of the original no-trump bid.

Many of the questions and extensions that have followed the Club) Convention and vexed contract players for the past year have been answered in Mr. Vanderbilt's new book. For example:

(a) If a Vanderbilt Club is doubled, should partner redouble to show two or more quick tricks?

(b) If a Vanderbilt Club is overbid by a bid of one in a suit or no trump, should partner show two or more quick tricks, by doubling?

His ans'wer to both of the foregoing is an emphatic "No". His reasoning is as follows:

Assume the dealer bids one club. If second hand overbids or doubles, the partner of the club bidder is not forced to bid. But if the latter makes a bid, either in a suit or notrump, over the intervening bid or double, it should indicate that the chances for game are as good as if the dealer makes a bid of one club, second hand passes and the partner of the club bidder makes an overbid other than one diamond.

If the partner of the club bidder elects to pass with a good hand, after an intervening double, in order to listen to the adverse bidding before himself bidding (often good strategy which may lead to a profitable double), any overbid he may subsequently make also indicates a good hand but one that does not necessarily require partner to keep on bidding. If, however, he should jump the bid, that is, make a bid of one more than necessary to overbid the previous bid, then the club bidder should realize that his partner holds a very good hand and that he is being asked or forced to keep the bidding open.

* The foregoing is particularly interesting in view of its references to the forcing system of bidding; for, as Mr. Vanderbilt says:

"While the principles of the Club Convention are unchanged—further experience lias but confirmed their soundness—its scope has been extended to control the second and in some cases the third round of bidding, by the introduction of a number of Forcing Overbids based in part on the Culbertson system of Forcing Bids, modified to suit the dictates of the Club Convention."

One rather important change has been made, after a one-club bid and a pass. When the one-diamond overbid (or any other overbid) is made by partner, the diamond bidder requires or expects a take-out by the original club bidder. During the development of the Club Convention, it was found that the original club bidder practically always overbid one diamond or any other bid by partner and, as a result, the conclusion followed that, if such were the case, it should and could be made an integral part of the Vanderbilt Club Convention.

Therefore, the Club Convention, as now advocated by Mr. Vanderbilt, contains three separate and distinct bidding classifications, each governed by a somewhat different set of principles. The bidding classifications are:

I. Original one-club and no-trump bids and the ensuing partnership bidding, up to game. The Vanderbilt Club should serve perfectly well as the basis of all bids under this classification.

II. Original suit one-bids (other than one club) and the ensuing partnership bidding up to game. These bids are regulation bids and do not differ materially from those advocated by other recognized systems.

III. The bidding from game to slams. Ace showing is the basis of all bids under this classification.

• In connection with the foregoing bidding classifications, the following advice is very much to the point and applicable to any system of bidding:

1. Once you decide to play a convention, do not deviate from it; if you do, your partner will lose that confidence in you which is vital to a partnership at Contract.

2. Above all, tell the truth to your partner when bidding—that is of paramount importance.

3. Learn to bid correctly. To impart accurate information to your partner is next in importance, in Contract Bridge, to bolding Aces and Kings.

One of the most interesting phases of the "Club Convention" is the manner in which no-trump hands with slam possibilities are handled under it. The following words by Mr. Vanderbilt bring out this point very well.

"If you hold a very strong no-trump hand with good slam possibilities, do not open with three no-trump, although your hand justifies the bid. Bid one club; then if your partner bids a diamond call three no-trump; if he bids anything else you may be strong enough to forthwith bid a slam. If you are that strong, all the more reason for bidding one club originally. It is easier for your partner to show you bis band after your one-club bid than after your three-no-trump call. In the latter case he is forced to bid so high that unless he has a really strong hand he may be afraid of getting you beyond your depth.

"There is an exception to the above rule requiring that probable slam no-trumpers should be bid, in(Continued on page 90) itially, one club. Assume you hold the following hand:

(Continued from page 68)

A-AK7 9-AK42 0 -A Q 3 *-A 10 5

"It is evident that if you open with one Club, your partner must bid a Diamond, as he cannot possibly hold two quick tricks. Consequently, you can obtain no information from his bid, which you did not already possess. Bid three no-trump originally, it being understood that such a bid indicates that you are lacking less than two of the eight quick tricks. An original bid of four or more no-trump would convey identical information, but would require somewhat more favorable distribution than that of the above hand. Sometimes this convention enables partner to place the quick tricks in your hand. Assume in our example that he holds:

0 -K .1 10 7 4 2 *-KQ3 3 A -4 2

"As he has one and one-half quick tricks he can definitely place all the missing Aces and Kings in your hand,

and the Queen of Diamonds as well, because if you are lacking both the club and diamond King-Queen it would be possible for him to have two quick tricks. He should bid a grand slam in no-trump, as he can count thirteen tricks."

The Club Convention undoubtedly gives a complete system of Contract bidding. There is only one criticism that can be made of it and that is that it may be too complicated for the average player. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen but, before criticising it for that reason, I feel that the players of the country should have a real try at it. I am sure that the majority of them will learn it without difficulty and use it successfully.

Contract is a very difficult game, and a high standard of play in it can only he attained after careful study and much practice, irrespective of the teacher or system followed. Perhaps, on first acquaintance, some of the principles of the Club Convention, which are really only a set of logical deductions, will prove difficult to apply, but if the player uses them at all regularly, an increasing familiarity with them will certainly tend to convince him of their essential sanity and simplicity.