Bridge Axioms and Laws. Elwell Joseph Bowne
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It is unusually bad play to double when you need only an odd trick to win the game.
The card led by your partner is a message of his holding in that suit.
Many a rubber is lost which the prompt lead of a high card might have saved.
It is too late to force when the adversaries hold the remaining trumps and an established suit.
Ruffing with a commanding trump rarely loses a trick and often gains one.
The temptation to over-trump should frequently be resisted.
Clear your long suit before you part with your card of re-entry.
Cultivate uniformity in your style of play, let there be no remarkable haste or hesitation in making or passing, and look as cheerful as possible.
Hesitation and mannerisms in Bridge should be carefully avoided.
Emphasise no play of your own, and show no pleasure or displeasure at any play.
Superiority of skill is shown by the play of the cards, not by mannerisms.
Continued hesitancy and nervous indecision are serious faults in Bridge.
Make up your mind to do your best with the cards that have been dealt you.
The occupant of the "high-chair" usually has a monopoly for giving advice.
Let your manner be uniformly such that no one can tell from it whether you are winning or losing.
Play Bridge with an eloquent silence; it will command both respect and admiration.
An occasional mistake is preferable to an irritating delay.
Slow play is, more or less, a habit. Its effect amounts to a fault.
When there is an unusual distribution of the cards, remarks are superfluous.
Indecision may tell your adversaries exactly what they are most eager to know.
Deliberation at the beginning of a hand is permissible and should be encouraged.
The player who interrupts the game to discuss the play should be ostracised from the card room.
Make no overt remarks during the play which may tend to give the adversaries information.
It is usually the inexperienced player who offers an astonishing amount of gratuitous and un-sought-for advice.
It is often difficult to refrain from showing pleasure at the accomplishment of a desired purpose, but consider that undue elation is most aggravating to the adversaries.
Post-mortems have their interest and, as a rule, are unmistakably convincing.
Do not venture upon a post-mortem unless you are certain of what the scalpel is going to reveal.
Do not continue to talk of harassing details when another hand is awaiting play.
General rules are formulated as an assistance to intelligent play.
Many brilliant plays are made in contravention to rules.
Certain laws that govern the technicalities are absolute, but rules in general are not the masters of Bridge.
Rules should be considered second to circumstances and to the fall of the cards.
There are hands in Bridge which may be said to play themselves.
All Bridge penalties should be strictly enforced.
You gather the cards when your partner takes the first trick.
Do not ask to have the cards placed unless it is solely for your own information.
A player has not the right to have the cards placed after they have been touched for the purpose of gathering them.
It is unfair to revoke purposely, or to make a second revoke in order to conceal the first.
The revoking side cannot win the game on that hand, nor score more than 28 points.
Clubs is a safer declaration, holding four with two honours, than spades, when but one or two are held without an honour.
Luck is a false friend and only stays with you until you are in trouble.
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