Appended hereto will be found "The Laws of Auction Bridge" as published by the Whist Club of New York, November, 1912. These laws should be carefully read, if not studied, by every devotee of the game. No matter how familiar a player may have been with the old laws, he will find an examination of the new to be advisable, as the changes are both numerous and important. If it has not been his practice to keep in touch with Auction legislation, he should realize that a close acquaintance with the code which governs the game he is playing will prove most beneficial.
As the laws speak for themselves, it is not necessary to explain them, or even to point out the various alterations. The wording in many cases has been materially changed, in order to clarify and simplify. Some penalties that seemed too severe have been reduced, and certain modifications have been made which appear to be in the line of modern thought. Special attention is called to the elimination of the law which prevented consultation as to the enforcement of a penalty, and also of the law which provided that when a wrong penalty was claimed, none could be enforced. The laws referring to cards exposed after the completion of the deal, and before the beginning of the play, have been materially changed, and the law covering insufficient and impossible declarations has been altered and redrafted. A point worthy of special attention is Law 52 of the Revised Code. It covers the case, which occurs with some frequency, of a player making an insufficient bid and correcting it before action is taken by any other player. Under the old rule, a declaration once made could not be altered, but now when the player corrects himself, as, for example, "Two Hearts—I mean three Hearts"; or "Two Spades—I should say, two Royals," the proper declaration is allowed without penalty.
The laws follow.
THE LAWS OF AUCTION BRIDGE
THE RUBBER
1. The partners first winning two games win the rubber. If the first two games decide the rubber, a third is not played.
SCORING
2. A game consists of thirty points obtained by tricks alone, exclusive of any points counted for honors, chicane, slam, little slam, bonus or undertricks.
3. Every deal is played out, and any points in excess of the thirty necessary for the game are counted.
4. When the declarer wins the number of tricks bid, each one above six counts towards the game: two points when spades are trumps, six when clubs are trumps, seven when diamonds are trumps, eight when hearts are trumps, nine when royal spades are trumps and ten when there are no trumps.