Correct contract bridge / by E.V. Shepard ; including the official Laws of contract bridge adopted by the Whist Club, New York, and by all the leading clubs in America.

I4 CORRECT CONTRACT BRIDGE

suit, whereas an ace can be led and still be certain
of winning a trick.
How can an ace win i 12 tricks? It cannot do
that, but half the time that you hold an ace its
presence will add a full trick to the value of partner's cards, by enabling him to win one trick that
could not be taken if an opponent held your ace.
The direct trick taking value of the ace is one trick,
its promotional value is an added Y2 trick, making
the total worth of the ace I 2 tricks. All this has
been proven, by actually placing in rotation the
other four honors in each of the 8i different positions that they can occupy in the hands of the three
remaining players; tabulating the total number of
tricks won in the 81 'hands, then listing the number
of these tricks that could not be won unless you held
the guarded ace, and so on with each other honor
or honors possible for you to hold. While the laborious process consumed several weeks' time, it resulted in obtaining real values, instead of the
rougher approximations previously in use. The
process also proved that for the purposes of declarer or dummy such honors as K Q X of a suit
are worth the same as the K X of one suit and the
Q X X of another suit.
Keep clearly in mind the distinction between sure
trick values, which are wholly defensive values
against trump declarations, and honor values which
only hold good when you are declarer or dummy.
The ace has a defensive value of only one trick but
its value to declarer or dummy is I 2 tricks. The
Q X X has a defensive value of only 4 trick but its