ROYAL AUCTION BRIDGE WITH NULLOS BY R. F. FOSTER Author of Fosters Complete Hoyle, Auction Bridge Upto-DateS etc. INCLUDING THE OFFICIAL LAWS OF ROYAL AUCTION BRIDGE AS ADOPTED BY THE WHIST CLUB OF NEW YORK, NOVEMBER, 1913 o NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PART I I. INTRODUCTION i II. THE NEW COUNT 6 III. FIRST PRINCIPLES 19 IV. THREE USES FOR THE SPADE CALL . 29 V. ANSWER TO THE ONE-SPADE BID . . 39 VI. ANSWER TO THE TWO-SPADE CALL . 49 VII. ANSWER TO THE BID OF ONE ROYAL . 58 VIII. ANSWER TO THE SUIT CALLS ... 68 IX. COMBINING THE HANDS IN DECLAR ING 77 X. DEALERS DEFENCE WITH WEAK HANDS 86 XI. INFERENCES FROM THE BIDDING . . 96 XII. IMPORTANCE OF THE CLUB SUIT . . 106 XIII. BIDDING ON COMMONPLACE HANDS . 116 XIV. SPECULATIVE BIDS 127 XV. TRYING FOR GAME 138 XVI. DECLARING ON LENGTH 147 XVII. BIDS INFLUENCE BIDS 157 XVIII. ASSIST OR DOUBLE 167 XIX. FOUR TRICK BIDS 177 PART II XX. VALUE OF A TRICK IN PLAY . . . 187 XXL UNBLOCKING LONG SUITS .... 196 VI ROYAL AUCTION CHAPTER PAGE XXII, ELIMINATION A PKOCKSS THAT SAVES THE PLAYER MANY TRICKS 209 XX III. FALSE CARDING ...... 2ig XXIV. A-J-io FINESSE ...... 2j XXV. HAD FINESSES ....... 238 XXVI. GKrnNci RID OF LOSING CARDS . . 245 XXVII. HOLDING UP AN ADVERSE SUIT . 253 XXVIII. RISKS TO WIN GAMK ..... 264 XXIX. ESTABLISHING A SUIT ..... 268 XXX. RE-ENTRY CARDS ...... 278 XXXI. THE ECHO ........ 288 XXXII. THE RULE OK ELEVEN .... 295 XXXIII. PLAY OF THE SECOND HAND . . . 303 XXXIV. HONOR ON HONOR ...... 312 XXXV. BEATING DUMMY ...... 321 XXXVL THE NULLO DECLARATIONS ... 326 XXXVII. SCORING AT NULLOS ..... 328 XXXVIII. THE BIDDING AT NULLOS .... 330 XXXIX. TAKING THE PARTNER OUT . . . 340 XL. PLAYING ANULLO HAND .... 342 XLI. PLANNING THE PLAY IN ADVANCE . 345 XLII. CONTROL OF THE LEAD AT NULLOS, 347 XLIIL PLAYING AGAINST A NULLO . . . 350 LAWS OK ROYAL AUCTION BRIDGE . 355 INTRODUCTION WHIST was a good game until they invented bridge, and bridge was a good game until they started to play auction. Auction was the best game of all until they suggested royals. This new game, having met and overcome every defect in the old, is regarded as the best card game for four players in the world to-day and will probably hold for the next ten years the places held, each for a decade, by whist and then by bridge. Whist had the defect that the trump was determined by pure chance and that many of the strongest hands were wasted because the trump did not suit them. Bridge remedied that defect by allowing the dealer to select the trump and permitting his adversaries to double its value if they thought the selection a bad one for him. But bridge had the defect that the dealer and his partner had a monopoly of the declaration, and while it was undoubtedly an improvement on whist it did not go far enough, because no matter how good the hands held by the non-dealers they had nothing to say about selecting the trump that would best fit their hands. Auction remedied this by allowing each player at the table a chance to pick out the suit and letting the man with the best cards play them for their full value. But auction in its turn had the defect that the values ROYAL AUCTION BRIDGE of the suits were not equitably adjusted, the advantage still being largely with the color of the cards dealt. With two of the four suits in the pack one might easily go game on the deal With the other two suits this wasimpossible if cither of them was the trump. This forced the partners who held the black suits to take long chances in order to get something out of their cards and prompted the player who held the red suits either to outbid them or to sit still and slaughter their no-trumpers. A man might hold the ten top cards in either of the black suits and be outbid by a player with five hearts or diamonds. All he could win would be from ten to twenty points and he might lose 100 if he overbid his hand a single trick...