THE LINCOLN SUNDAY STAR

Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.

21 January 1917

(Page 1)

SOCIETY FINDS NEW SUBSTITUTE FOR BRIDGE.

Have you heard, card enthusiasts, that just as whist was superseded, many years ago, by bridge and bridge by auction, so auction is to be superseded by a new game—pirate bridge. It is said that people in the east are quite mad about the new game of bridge and that pirate bridge parties are the dernier cries. It was invented by Aleister Crowley and in a recent short article Mr. Crowley explains that the real reason for the invention is the six major drawbacks of auction which he gives as follows:

First: Mismated partners. You get a fiend for a partner and can’t shake him off.

Second: Mismated hands. The two good heart hands never seem to come together. The good spade partners are opposed to each other, the no-trumpers are also opposed, etc., etc.

Third: The frequency with which bids are set. In actual practice only nine bids out of thirteen are successful at auction.

Fourth: The fact that you are liable all through a rubber for your partner’s mistakes.

Fifth: The bickering, fault-finding, nagging, and exhibitions of bad temper.

Sixth: It is not a good game for the ambitious, as only two people can win—or lose—and they must always win or lose like amounts.

In the same breath he gives the six major advantages of pirate bridge:

First: You can—if you are clever—avoid tying yourself up with a tedious, poetic, alcoholic or idiotic partner.

Second: The hands which will work best together—in any suit—tend to come together.

Third: Fewer final bids are set back, thus shortening the duration of every rubber.

Fourth: Every player is playing for himself. Four scores are kept—all of them independent.

Fifth: Pirate Bridge does away with a lot of bickering and quarrelling. You may blame someone for “accepting” you, when the hand goes wrong; but you are not tied to him for the rubber.

Sixth: It is a first-rate game for the man who is of a gambling temperament.

The rules have just been submitted to the New York Bridge club and will probably soon be having enthusiastic converts. At any rate it is safe to guess that every one will at least give “pirate” a try out and if it is as much of an improvement as bridge and then auction—pirate is doomed to stay until someone else invents something better.