The ideal partner is one who never criticises or even seems to be aware of your mistakes, but on the contrary recognizes a good maneuver on your part, and gives you credit for it whether you win the hand or lose; whereas the inferior player is apt to judge you merely by what you win, and blame your “make” if you “go down,” though your play may have been exceptionally good and the loss even occasioned by wrong information which he himself gave you.  Also, to be continually found fault with makes you play your worst; whereas appreciation of good judgment on your part acts as a tonic and you play seemingly “better than you know how.”

=PEOPLE DISLIKED AT THE BRIDGE TABLE=

There is nothing which more quickly reveals the veneered gentleman than the card table, and his veneer melts equally with success or failure.  Being carried away by the game, he forgets to keep on his company polish, and if he wins, he becomes grasping or overbearing, because of his “skill”; if he loses he sneers at the “luck” of others and seeks to justify himself for the same fault that he criticised a moment before in another.

A trick that is annoying to moderately skilled players, is to have an over-confident opponent throw down his hand saying:  “The rest of the tricks are mine!” and often succeed in “putting it over,” when it is quite possible that they might not be his if the hand were played out.  Knowing themselves to be poorer players, the others are apt not to question it, but they feel none the less that their “rights” have been taken from them.

A rather trying partner is the nervous player, who has no confidence in his own judgment and will invariably pass a good hand in favor of his partner’s bid.  If, for instance, he has six perfectly good diamonds, he doesn’t mention them because, his partner having declared a heart, he thinks to himself “Her hearts must be better than my diamonds.”  But a much more serious failing—­and one that is far more universal—­is the habit of overbidding.

=OVERBIDDING=

In poker you play alone and can therefore play as carefully or as foolishly as you please, but in bridge your partner has to suffer with you, and you therefore are in honor bound to play the best you know how—­and the best you know how is as far as can possibly be from overbidding.

Remember that your partner, if he is a good player, counts on you for certain definite cards that you announce by your bid to be in your hand, and raises you accordingly.  If you have not these cards you not only lose that particular hand, but destroy his confidence in you, and the next time when he has a legitimate raise for you, he will fail to give it.  He disregards you entirely because he is afraid of you!  You must study the rules for makes and never under any circumstances give your partner misinformation; this is the most vital rule there is, and any one who disregards it is detested at the bridge table.  No matter how great the temptation to make a gambler’s bid, you are in honor bound to refrain.