Auction of To-day

by Milton C. Work

The figures frequently run into high numbers on both sides, and when the rubber continues during three hotly contested games, they become quite voluminous.

The score-sheet should be left on the table, and the writing on it should be of such size that it can be seen at a glance. This saves time and trouble, as it relieves the players from the necessity of asking the state of the score.

In some clubs two scores are kept, so that, in the only too probable contingency of a mistake being made, it may invariably be detected. This, however, is unnecessary, and at times confusing. The extra sheet is also apt to prove annoying, because of the space it occupies upon the table. One score is quite sufficient, if it be competently kept, and each entry, as well as the additions, verified.

There are two totally different types of Auction score-sheets. The one which is used in perhaps ninety per cent. of the private games, and, strange as it may seem, in many clubs, has absolutely no excuse for its existence, except that it was the first to be introduced and has the reputation of being universally used in foreign countries. It requires scoring above and below the line, which is a most cumbersome and dilatory proposition. Keeping tally by this method involves, at the end of a rubber, long mathematical problems, which, as the scorer is then in a hurry, frequently result in serious, and at times undiscovered, mistakes.

The modern system adopted in the up-to-date clubs, in which the game has received its most scientific development, and in the highest class of social games, does away with the antiquated methods and exacting mathematical problems of the above- and below-the-line system, by using a form of score-sheet which allows and encourages the scorer to mentally compute simple sums during the progress of the rubber. By the elimination of complicated figuring, it minimizes the opportunity for mistake, and delay at the end of the rubber.

All players are doubtless familiar with the old system of above-and below-the-line scoring, but only three classes now use it:

A. Those who have never had the modern system and its advantages called to their attention.

B. Those who believe that, having once become accustomed to any method, it should never be changed for a better.

C. Those who believe that, because foreign clubs adopt a certain method, we should do the same.

It is probably wasting time to attempt to convert any representative of either B or C, and fortunately for the intelligence of American card players there are comparatively few who deserve to be included in either of these classifications.