The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (13 page)

Whoever bids highest becomes the declarer and turns the dummy

faceup between the two defenders after his left-hand opponent has

led. It may be agreed to turn one or more of the dummy cards face

up after each bid is made – for example, face one card after each

up after each bid is made – for example, face one card after each

bid or double at the 1-level, two after a bid or double of 2, and so

on.

Towie

Deal four hands and turn six of the dummy cards face up. The

highest bidder becomes the declarer, turning up and playing the

whole of the dummy hand as at contract. If al players pass, or if

the proposed contract is insuf icient for game, the same dealer re-

deals a ‘goulash’ hand as fol ows. Each player sorts his hand into

suits so that cards of one suit are together, though not necessarily in

ranking order. Dealer sorts al dummy cards in the same way,

permit ing the others to see how they are arranged. Then dealer

lays his own hand face down on the table, upon which are placed,

face down and in this order, those of his left opponent, dummy,

and fourth player. After a cut, dealer re-deals in batches of 5-5-3.

Final y, he shuf les the dummy cards and turns six face up. The

same procedure fol owsuntilasuf icientcontractisreached. Odd tricks

contracted and won score as at Contract, except that NT tricks count

35 each throughout. (This more sensible value obtained in the

earliest form of Contract.) Overtricks score 50 each, possibly

doubled and redoubled to 100 and 200 respectively, and

(re)doubled overtricks are doubled again if declarer was vulnerable.

Bonus of 50 for making a doubled contract, or 100 redoubled, in

either case doubled again if vulnerable. Honours and slams as at

Contract. Undertrick penalties are 50 each, or 100 doubled or 200

redoubled, but greater if declarer was vulnerable: 100 for the first

and 200 for each subsequent undertrick, these penalties being

twiceor four timesasgreat ifdoubledorredoubled. Bonus of 500 for

game, 1000 for the rubber.

Booby

Deal seventeen cards each and one face down to an eventual

dummy. Each player examines his hand and makes four discards

face down to the dummy, leaving al four hands with 13 cards each.

Players bid in the usual way, with the addition of a nul o bid

ranking between hearts and spades, and valued at 30 per trick. 1

nul o is an of er to win not more than six tricks at no trump, while

7 nul os is a complete miseére. Whoever bids highest becomes the

declarer and turns the dummy face up between the two defenders

after his left-hand opponent has led. Suggestion Try dealing sixteen

each and five face up to the dummy, to which each player then

contributes three. Ignore nul os.

Two-handed Bridge

Two-handed Bridge is merely two-handed Whist with Bridge

scoring. The traditional forms appear below.

Double Dummy

Deal four hands, two face down. Players bid on what they can see

in their own hands. After the auction, the dummy opposite each

player is turned face up and each plays alternately from his own

hand and from his dummy’s. Alternatively (and more realistical y),

dummies are not open to both players. Instead, after the bidding,

each places his own dummy in such a position that the other cannot

see exactly how the opposing cards are split. An easily made card-

holder for this purpose consists of a shoe box, with lid, placed

upside down on the table. The dummy cards are slipped down

upside down on the table. The dummy cards are slipped down

between the lid and the side of the box. If only one box is available,

the players sit at opposite sides of it.

Single Dummy

Deal four thirteen-card hands including two dummies. After the

deal, one dummy is turned face up. Bid as at Contract. The

established declarer announces whether he wil play with the

exposed dummy or take his chance with the concealed one. Then

the concealed dummy is turned up and play proceeds as at Double

Dummy.

Draw and Discard

Shuf le the cards thoroughly and place them face down to form a

stock. Starting with non-dealer, each in turn draws the top card of

stock, looks at it, and either (a) keeps it, ending his turn, or (b)

discards it, face down, and draws the next, which he must then

keep. As soon as a player has 13 cards he stops drawing. When

both have 13, they bid and play in Contract Bridge fashion. The

rejected cards play no further part.

Honeymoon Bridge (Draw Bridge)

Deal thirteen each and place the rest face down as a stock. Non-

Deal thirteen each and place the rest face down as a stock. Non-

dealer leads, and tricks are played at no trump. It is theoretical y

obligatory to fol ow suit if possible but, as the rule is

unenforceable, it may be dispensed with. The winner of a trick

discards it face down, as it serves no further purpose, and draws the

top card of the stock to add to his hand before leading. His

opponent then draws the next before replying. As soon as the last

card has been drawn, players bid and play their last 13 cards as at

Contract, scoring accordingly. Variant: before leading to each trick,

the leader exposes the top card of stock so that each player may

gauge whether or not he wishes to win the trick. The loser of a trick

draws an unknown card, of course. This improves the strategy of

the game.

Memory Bridge

Deal thirteen each and place the rest face down as a stock. The first

13 are played as tricks at no trump. Non-dealer leads and it is

obligatory to fol ow suit. There is no drawing from stock. The

player who takes more scores in Contract fashion, as for a bid of

1NT, and adds a premium of 100 above the line. The remaining

cards are then dealt, bid on, played and scored as usual.

I Whist

4 players (2 × 2), 52 cards

Any good Whist player wil be a good Contract player when he has

mastered the elements of bidding; but mil ions of people who pass

as good Contract players because they bid their hands wel and play

them wel (after the bidding has located most of the key cards)

would be quite beyond their depth at Whist, where the trump

would be quite beyond their depth at Whist, where the trump

depends on chance and the location of the cards has to be inferred

from the play.

Elmer Davis,Harpers Magazine, 1932

For over 150 years this quintessential y English game was regarded

by the whole of the western world as the summit of social and

intel ectual recreation, a status now claimed by Contract Bridge. Its

early history is less il ustrious. Whist goes back to a Tudor game

cal ed Trump, or Ruf , a relative of Triomphe, the ancestor of

Ecarte. Shakespeare’s contemporaries regarded it as a rude ale-

house pastime, and under the Stuarts it was dubbed Whisk and

Swabbers, a rather down-put ing piece of word-play on Ruf and

Honours. Its reputation as a kids’ game was underlined by Charles

Cot on’s reluctance to describe it in The Compleat Gamester (1674),

on the grounds that ‘Every Child almost of Eightyears old hath a

competent knowledg in that recreation’. But in 1728 a circle of

businessmen, headed by Lord Folkestone, who hob-nobbed at the

Crown Cof ee-house in Bedford Row, began to apply logic and

precision to its deceptively simple structure, and to develop ways of

playing the game systematical y. One of their acquaintance was an

elderly gentleman cal ed Edmond Hoyle, who started teaching it to

wel -to-do people in their own homes, and eventual y published his

tutoring notes as a Short Treatise on Whist in 1742. So successful

was this publication that it made both Hoyle a household name and

Whist the game of the elite until its eclipse by Bridge in the 1890s.

Since then it has reverted to its original status, remaining a popular

family game and stil widely pursued in communal Whist drives. By

serious players it suf ers a quite undeserved neglect. Nobody should

learn Bridge without prior experience of it, and many Bridge

players would improve their game immensely by going on a crash

diet of Whist only.

A The name ‘Whist’ is attached to a number of other games that have little or

nothing in common with it beyond being plain-trick games. These will be found

in their place, following this description of the classical partnership game.

Preliminaries Four players sit ing crosswise in partnerships receive

13

cards each, dealt in ones from a 52-card pack ranking

AKQJT98765432.

Turn the last card face up to establish trumps.

Object To win seven or more tricks.

Play Eldest leads. Players must fol ow suit if possible, otherwise

may

play any card. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led,

or

by the highest trump if any are played, and the winner of each trick

leads to the next.

Score Whichever side took more tricks scores 1 point per odd trick.

Whichever side held three or four honours (AKQJ), whether in one

hand or between the two, scores 2 or 4 points respectively – unless,

however, they already stand at 4 towards game, in which case the

honours are not counted.

Revoke The penalty for a revoke is 3 points, which the opponents

may

either add to their own score or subtract from that of the revoking

side.

In counting towards game, the score for a revoke takes priority over

the score for tricks.

Game score The first side to reach or exceed 5 points wins the

game,

thereby (if applicable) preventing the other side from scoring for

honours. The winning side counts a single game point if the other

made 3 or 4 points, a double if the other made only 1 or 2, a treble

made 3 or 4 points, a double if the other made only 1 or 2, a treble

if the other made no score. The side that first wins two games adds

2 game points for the rubber. The margin of victory is the

dif erence between the two sides’ total of game points. Thus the

highest possible game score is 8 to 0, the winning side having won

two trebles plus 2 for the rubber.

Conventions Leading to the first trick gives you the advantage of

set ing the pace and being best placed to describe your hand by the

card you play. For this purpose, some highly elaborate signals or

‘conventional leads’ were worked out when the game was most in

vogue, many of which remain valid for Bridge. They may be

condensed and simplified as fol ows.

Lead from your longest plain suit, or, from two of equal length,

from that with the highest cards. If the top cards of the opening suit

form one of the fol owing pat erns, lead to the first and second

tricks as indicated below:

from lead

AKQJ

K thenj

AKQ-

K then

AK-J

K then

A-QJ

A then

-KQJ

j

From any other Ace holding, lead the King if you have it,

otherwise Ace then fourth best (as it was before the Ace was led).

Holding neither Ace nor King, lead fourth best of the suit – for

example, the Seven from Q9873.

You may lead trumpsifyou hold fiveor more, the appropriate

signals being:

from lead

AKQJ