Suppose you have a strong hand, and call Two No-trumps, and win the first game from love with four by cards, and score 30 Aces, you have won 66 points, and have improved your chance of winning the 250 points for the rubber. If we reckon your chance of the rubber as 5 to 3 on (it certainly is not more), it is worth about 63 points more—say 130 in all.
This you may think a great success. But if you can get the opponents to overbid your Two No-trumps with Three Hearts, and you see that they can only get the odd trick, you will be better off if you double and let them play, even if they score 16 for honours. For 200 less 16 leaves you 184 points—and you are still 54 to the good.
As player of Dummy, aim first at fulfilling your
contract. When this is accomplished, you may try for game.
As player against Dummy, aim first at saving the game. When there is no risk of that being lost, devote yourself to defeating the dealer's contract.
FIVE HUNDRED.
This is a game largely played in the United States and in Canada, but not so well known in this country as it deserves to be, though one variety of it has been played in London clubs. It is primarily and specifically a game for three players; and this is one of its greatest merits, for good three-handed games are rare.
"Five Hundred" has been characterised as a "patchwork" or "mosaic" game; but such expressions do not do it justice, as tending to create the impression that it is a thing of shreds picked up here and there, and indifferently joined together. It does, indeed, borrow its elements from sundry older games: Euchre, Loo, Nap, and Auction Bridge: but by combining these elements into a new and harmonious whole, it achieves a sum total that produces the effect of novelty without taxing our brains to assimilate unfamiliar and bizarre ideas.