strength, such as Ace, King, Knave; Ace,
Queen, Knave; or King, Queen, Knave, in the suit, coupled with another
Ace; or a King and Queen, a bid with a four-card combination may be
ventured. A four-card suit, headed by Ace, King, Queen, may be called
without other strength.

A short suit, that is, one of three cards or less, should never be bid
originally, regardless of its strength. Even the holding of Ace, King,
Queen, does not justify the naming of such a suit.

While the doctrine above enunciated as to the minimum strength required
for a Trump bid is unquestionably logical and is now regarded as
conventional by a very large proportion of the expert players of
Auction, it is only natural that there should be some dissent. There is
a certain character of mind that always desires to carry any sound
theory to dangerous extremes, and, consequently, some players and
writers have seen fit, while adopting the theory which has altered the
old system of always starting with one Spade into the modern
informatory game, to advocate extensions which would practically
eliminate the defensive declaration.

These extremists desire to permit a Dealer to bid whenever he has a
long suit, regardless of whether it be headed by high cards, and also
whether it would aid a No-trump. One system suggested is that a Trump
be called whenever the Dealer holds any suit which counts 7, on the
basis of an Ace or face counting 2, and any lower card, 1. The
believers in this doctrine would, therefore, bid a Club from such a
hand as Queen, Knave, X, X, X, without any possibility of another
trick; or even from Knave, X, X, X, X, X. The absurdity of this becomes
obvious when it is remembered that the only real object in bidding a
Club or Diamond is to show strength which will justify the partner in
declaring one of the three game-going declarations. Any such holding as
that mentioned not only does not help any other declaration, but as a
matter of fact is a hand so far under the trick-taking average that, if
any method could be devised by which weakness could be emphasized more
strongly than by making the defensive declaration, such a hand would
fully justify employing it. It is difficult to conceive what benefit
can result to a partnership from any such weakness being, for the
purpose of the declaration, changed into alleged strength. If a player
declare with any such combination, his power to give information when
he really possesses strength of cou