AUCTION BRIDGE.
A lively offshoot from the preceding game, which has recently become very popular in some of the London Clubs. So highly is it ranked in many quarters, that a well-known player has given it as his opinion that "in a year or two we shall only remember Bridge as the son of Whist and the father of Auction." Having in view the strong element of gambling which the latter game contains, and the expectedly heavy losses which may be incurred by the unwary player, the writer opines that a good many impecunious folk are likely to remember it only as being connected with their "uncle."
It is, in fact, a combination of Bridge and Poker. In all that takes place after the declaration has been finally determined, it is pure Bridge, with an extra infusion of "double dummy," due to inferences from the course of the bidding. In the bidding itself, which leads up to the final declaration, the qualities of the Poker-player are pre-eminent—cool but rapid judgment, shrewd reading of character, a happy instinct when to "lie low" and when to "bluff"; when to make a spurt forward for game, and when to egg the opponents on beyond the limits of discretion, and to leave them in the lurch!
By the adherents of the new game—who are head
over ears in love with it, and are consequently blind to all its weak points—it is contended that the "gambling" argument brought against it is as fallacious as it was when urged against Bridge proper, and that, to redress the balance, it is only necessary to readjust the value of the points. This is not true. Poker is an excellent game, but no readjustment of values will ever place it on the same plane as games of science, because the qualities of brain and temperament upon which it is based are essentially distinct from the qualities of analysis and combination such as go to the making of (say) a first-class Chess-player. There is, undoubtedly, a greater difference in kind between Auction Bridge and Bridge than there is between Bridge and Whist; whether that difference renders Auction "inferior" or "superior," however, is a moot question which every card-player must decide for himself. There are many who regard the additional spice of hazard, not as a defect, but as a merit.
The Laws of the game, which for some time were in a state of flux, have now been settled as authoritatively as those of Bridge or Whist. It will only be necessary to set out verbatim those Laws which differ from the Laws of Bridge. As regards the remainder, the reader is referred to the preceding Bridge Code.
THE LAWS OF AUCTION BRIDGE.
(Framed by a Joint Committee of the Portland and Bath Clubs, 1908; and reprinted, by permission, so far as they differ from the Laws of Bridge.)
1. As in Bridge.