"What is new in the game of Bridge?" is a reiterated question of the
day, and the invariable answer is "Nothing, nor does the lack of
innovation tend to simplify the play."
* * * * *
All Bridge players have experienced the agony of being forced to discard
a great suit, thoroughly established, on the dealer's lead, owing to the
fact that the partner has made two efforts to establish the suit he
originally opened.
* * * * *
Many times this continuation is sound: the leader holds a re-entry
card, and he has secured no information as to his partner's strength
from the early development of the game.
* * * * *
It is essential to good play that the dealer's adversaries should each
gain definite knowledge of the others' holding. Any information that a
play can convey is of inestimable help to them and of little or no
benefit to the dealer, who is the master of his own two hands.
* * * * *
We all sympathise with that constantly uttered regret, "Oh, partner, if
I had only known that you had that suit," and Bridge players the world
over have felt the need of some conventional play that would indicate
to the original leader an adequate reason for a change of suit.
* * * * *
The Change the Suit Call is a new convention designed to overcome this
difficulty, one that will save countless tricks and rubbers, and one
that will tend to minimise the dealer's acknowledged advantage in
playing the two hands.
* * * * *
The convention is as follows: _When the original leader's partner has a
great suit, one that is established or one that may be established by a
single lead through the dummy hand, an echo should be made in the suit
led by the dealer._ In other words, an echo in the adversary's suit is a
command to the original leader to abandon his own unestablished suit
and to switch to his partner's declared strength.
* * * * *
The idea is of course based on the call for trumps in Whist, in which
game an echo in any plain suit is a command to the partner to lead
trumps. In Bridge it is used principally at no-trump and its application
is limited to an echo on the _dealer's_ lead.
* * * * *
The reader will naturally ask, "How, when but two suits have been led,
can I determine which of the two remaining to choose?" The cards in the
leader's hand combined with those in the dummy will usually simplify the
selection. Should the leader hold a re-entry in one of the remaining
suits it is obvious that he has been asked to lead the other. When it
happens that both the leader and the dummy are weak in both suits, the
preference should usually be given to the one in which the combined
hands contain the fewer number of cards.
* * * * *
This convention may, moreover, be used to great advantage by the
original leader. How frequently he finds his suit hopelessly against
him. Perhaps he holds no re-entry and the dealer in winning the first
trick false cards. It is then that the original leader can use this echo
to effect, to suggest that his suit should not be returned.
"The Change the Suit Call" may also be employed to some advantage on the
dealer's trump or plain suit lead, to show great strength in one of the
remaining suits, or by the original leader to indicate that the suit
first led is not to be returned; but its main importance is in the
no-trump application.
* * * * *
"The Change the Suit Call" is an absolutely sound trick-gaining
proposition, and the successful results obtained from its use must
rapidly establish it as a recognised convention of the game.