Part 14

If partner has called for trumps, and you are able to lead trumps to him, lead the highest of three, the lowest of four, unless the ace be one of the four, when lead the ace, then the lowest. If your partner lead winning trumps, and you hold four, play to his leads, first, the lowest but one, then the lowest. This shows four trumps at least. Also if, before either you or your partner obtain the lead, you have {204} the chance of playing an unnecessarily high card which does not damage your hand, do so, if you hold four or more trumps and your partner has called. If the adversaries either "call" or lead trumps, then, conceal the fact that you hold four. It is even sometimes advisable, if you know your partner is weak in trumps, and the adversaries are leading trumps, and you hold only three, to play these as though you held four; the strong hand may then draw his partner's last trump, under the impression that you hold it. Such "false-carding," however, should not be attempted until one has acquired proficiency in the game.

DISCARDING.

It is a most important matter to know what to discard, when you hold none of the suit led, and either cannot or do not think it desirable to trump. The discard may be grouped under three heads:--

1. When trumps have not been led, nor have been called for by either adversary. Then discard the lowest of the weakest suit.

2. When your partner has led trumps, and you have to discard on a winning card of his, throw away the lowest card of your weakest suit.

3. If the adversaries have either led trumps or have called for trumps, throw away the lowest card of the strongest suit.

Simple as this system of discarding really is, and sound as it is, some players never seem to comprehend it. They will too often do the very opposite, and will throw away from their strong suit when their partner has led trumps, and from their weak suit when the adversaries have led trumps. {205}

When a player has had the original lead, and has shown strength in one suit, it is unnecessary that he tell his partner that he is strong in that suit by discarding from it when the adversaries have led trumps; he may then discard from a weak suit, unless he has to keep it guarded.

Towards the end of a hand, and when only four or five cards remain, the discard is often of vital importance, and should be carefully attended to by a partner.

Attention may be called to the occasional advisability of discarding falsely, when one has mastered the principles of the game. Such false discard may be understood by the following example. Suppose you hold ace, queen, and two small clubs and two small spades. The adversaries have led trumps, and your left-hand player has drawn the last trump from your partner. According to rule, you ought to discard a club, to show your partner your strong suit. As, however, your left adversary has the lead, he would at once lead a spade up to your indicated weak suit. You may therefore discard a spade, in the hope that he may lead a club up to your ace, queen.

THE USE AND ABUSE OF TRUMPS.

The suit that is trumps is the most powerful suit of all. A two of trumps will beat the ace of another suit. Consequently, it is of the utmost importance that trumps be treated with the greatest respect. As a general rule, the original leader with a strong numerical hand of trumps should lead them, six or even five trumps being numerical strength, even though no honour is held. If the original leader {206} hold six trumps, there are only seven others against him; and if these be divided as they most generally will be, viz. two each in two hands and three in one other, three rounds of trumps will extract all the trumps except the three remaining in the leader's hand; in which case three certain tricks are held by the leader. If one player hold six trumps, it is probable that his partner holds a long suit (not trumps); and if trumps be extracted, his partner may make several tricks in this long suit. There is no fear of the adversaries doing so, as the long suit would be trumped by the leader who held originally five or six trumps. If, on the contrary, partner has no good cards, a valuable score can hardly be made by any method of play. Therefore, to lead trumps, if strong in them, is almost imperative, although the leader may hold no winning card in any other suit. If the partner only hold one trump, which will be discovered in the second round, it is advisable to continue leading a trump in order to draw two of the adversaries' trumps together, and thus to prevent them from making these separately.

One of the great difficulties which players only partially acquainted with the game experience, is when to trump or not to trump a doubtful card.

It has been laid down as a law not to trump a doubtful card if strong in trumps, and many players will never trump a doubtful card if they hold only four small trumps, as they seem to consider such a hand is strong.

It must be remembered that refusing to trump a doubtful card is in reality declining to make certain of a trick, in exchange for a possibility that one's partner may hold the winning card of the suit. If {207} the adversary hold the winning card, then a trick has been actually lost by declining to trump. How, then, can the loss of this trick be recovered? It may be recovered if the player who refused to trump is able to extract the adversaries' trumps, and bring in one or more cards of a long suit, a proceeding which he would have been unable to accomplish had he trumped the doubtful card. Also, the player who refused to trump may get rid of a worthless card of some other suit, which he may then be able to trump should the winning card of that suit be against him.

When, however, no card that is worthless can be thrown away, and when strength in trumps has been indicated against him, a player can with advantage trump a doubtful card, even though he hold four trumps, one of which is an honour.

Another important item in connection with trumping a doubtful card is whether one desires the lead, or does not wish for it. If the lead would be disadvantageous, then the doubtful card should _not_ be trumped, and _vice versâ_.

When one's partner has either led or has called for trumps, then the doubtful card should be trumped without hesitation, and the best trump led to the partner's call or lead of trumps.

One very common and oft-repeated error of the bad player is to refuse to trump a winning card merely because he holds four trumps with one honour. He will refuse to trump more than once, and imagines he is playing a strong winning game by discarding one or more worthless cards of a short suit, which he believes he will be able to trump when this suit is led. {208}

With a hand of trumps not sufficiently strong to make certain of extracting all the trumps and remaining with the lead, it is advisable to consider how many tricks are likely to be won by the trumps in one's own hand. For example, the trumps held are queen, nine, four, and two. It is not likely that more than one trump will make a trick, and possibly not one. We have the chance of trumping a doubtful card, and we refuse to make even one of our trumps, and throw away a certain trick if our partner does not hold the winning card of that suit. If our partner does hold the winning card of the suit, he may not be obliged to play it on our trump; and it is no severe loss to make one trump out of four, even if the partner does hold the winning card.

It cannot be too strongly impressed on the young player that the great object of Whist is to win tricks, and to refuse to win a trick when you can do so is to accept a dangerous responsibility.

UNDERPLAY.

One of the worst forms of bad play is to repeatedly change the suit, and thus, by continuing to make your partner third player, to incur the risk of sacrificing the best cards of each suit that are in his hand. Instead, therefore, of leading a fresh suit in which you may be very weak, it is frequently safer to return the adversaries' lead, especially if it is evident that you can lead through the strong hand up to the weak.

In order to take full advantage of this lead, what is termed "underplay" may be attempted. As an example of underplay, the following is given. A, original leader, leads the two of spades, thus indicating {209} most probably a four suit; A, it is evident by this lead, does not hold king, queen of the suit. Y, the second player, plays the three of spades; B, third player, plays the nine; and Z, fourth player, holding ace, ten, and four of spades, wins the trick with the ten.

Z, having no court card in the three remaining suits, fears to lead any one of these. Z knows that he possesses the ace of spades, but this fact is not known to A. Z then underplays by leading back the four of spades. A, who holds king, knave, eight, plays knave second hand; Y wins with queen, and now knows that his partner holds the ace, for had A held the ace he would have played it second in hand. Y, now having the lead, can show his strong suit, and may fairly assume that his partner has no good suit, because, had he been strong in any suit, he would have led a card of it, instead of at once resorting to underplay.

FALSE CARDS.

False cards are played either in consequence of ignorance, or for the purpose of deception. A player who has never troubled himself to learn the leads is perpetually playing false cards, and deceiving his partner. Thus, with a suit of five headed by one honour (not the ace), a player who leads the lowest of this suit, instead of the fourth best, has led a false card, and has, according to Whist rules, told his partner a falsehood, viz. that he holds only four instead of five cards in this suit.

A player who holds ace, king, and queen of a suit, and leads king then ace, also tells his partner a {210} falsehood, inasmuch as he makes the cards say: "I don't hold the queen of this suit."

False cards, played deliberately, are those which a player knows he ought not to play according to rule; such, for example, as winning a trick with the ace when it could have been won with the king, or playing the queen of a suit on an adversary's king when the knave was held.

The cases in which false cards can be played with advantage are rare, but sometimes, especially in trumps, success may follow the play of a false card. The following is an example:--A holds ace, king, ten, and eight of diamonds (trumps). When Y, the left-hand adversary, obtains the lead, he plays a small diamond; Z, the right-hand adversary, plays queen third in hand. A may now win with ace, thus stating, in effect, that he does not hold the king.

Y may now conclude that his partner probably holds the king, and, on again obtaining the lead, may play another diamond up to king, ten, eight, when A is certain to make both king and ten.

HOW TO PLAY WHIST.

When a player has learnt the leads, and what to play second and third in hand, he can play a fairly intelligent game. In the present day, when there are so many ably written books on Whist, there is no excuse for an habitual whist-player remaining ignorant of such elementary matters as the leads. The skill and general principles of the game may then be studied. The following suggestions should at this stage be attended to:--

Sort your hand as quickly as possible, so as to be {211} able to form some idea of the style of game you ought to play before a single card is led. Remember that an average hand contains four court cards, of honours, one in each suit. If these four court cards be four knaves, the hand is below the average; if four kings, or two kings, two queens, and a knave, it is about the average.

When the hand has been sorted, and the adversary's score his been examined, a player can estimate his chances (or the certainty) of saving the game. If the adversaries have nothing scored towards the game, and you hold ace, king, queen of trumps, you know that you must win three tricks, and nothing but a revoke can lose you the game. A bolder game may then be attempted than would be advisable if you had not the saving of the game in your own hand. It is always desirable to make certain of saving the game before you attempt to win it. We frequently hear rash players remark, "I never dreamed it possible that we could lose the game; if I had thought so I could have easily saved it." The safer plan is to always think it possible to lose the game, unless you have the saving of it in your own hand.

Although it is correct play to lead from the longest numerical suit, especially when strong in trumps, it is most detrimental to continue to do so when very weak in trumps, and when you have found, by the card your partner has played third in hand, that he has no winning or protecting card in that suit. It frequently happens, if this lead be repeated, that one adversary holds the winning cards of the suit; the other falls short, and is consequently able to get rid of worthless cards on his partner's winning cards.

As we have already had occasion to remark, and {212} the fact should be persistently borne in mind, the great object at Whist is _to win tricks_. Many inexperienced players, who have superficially learnt certain rules, seem to imagine that it is better to refuse to win tricks in order to convey information to a partner, or to deceive one or both of the adversaries. This proceeding is most commonly adopted when the unskilled player holds four small trumps, and is not provided with a long suit, and believes it to be good play to decline to trump a doubtful card second in hand. With four small trumps, it is more than probable that not one of these will win a trick except by trumping. To refuse to trump a doubtful card indicates strength in trumps, and this strength ought not to be less than five trumps, with or without an honour or honours, or four trumps with two honours.

UNBLOCKING.

One of the most important results of the modern system of leading is that a player may know when to unblock his partner's suit; that is, to avoid being left with the winning card of a suit of which his partner holds the remainder. The disasters that may result from not unblocking are of frequent occurrence with those players who either do not know the leads, or are incompetent to grasp the situation. The following is a simple example:--

Y holds the ace, knave, 3 of clubs, and four losing cards in spades and hearts. Z (Y's partner) has extracted all the trumps (diamonds), and leads the king of clubs; A follows suit with the 2, Y plays the 3, B plays the 5.

Z then leads the 4 of clubs; A plays the 9. Z, {213} knowing from his partner's lead that the latter has the queen of clubs, ought to perceive at once that, as regards winning the trick, his ace and knave are equal cards; but that the former may obstruct Y's other clubs, whereas the latter cannot. If Z mechanically plays his lower card (perhaps being even deluded by the belief that he is "finessing"!), he has successfully blocked his partner's suit; because, when he has played out his ace, he must lead another suit, and his partner, who had king, queen, 10, 8, 4 of clubs, and two small hearts, can never get in again to make his two remaining clubs. If Y had won the second round of clubs with his ace, and returned the knave, Z would have taken the knave with his queen, and would then have won tricks with his ten and four. Consequently, Y and Z would have won five tricks in clubs, instead of only three; Y therefore, by not unblocking his partner's suit, lost two tricks in that one hand.

Another form of not unblocking is the following:--Y leads the knave of spades, which wins; he then leads the king of the same suit. Z, his partner, held originally ace, three, and two of that suit. When Y leads the king after the knave, Z ought to know that his partner led originally from five spades headed by king, queen, knave. It is therefore Z's duty to play his ace on his partner's king, and thus unblock his partner's suit. Z now knows that, as his partner led originally from five spades, and he held originally three, making eight, a third round of spades must be trumped by one of the adversaries. Y, if he knows his partner to be a sound player, will feel certain that his partner holds one more spade; because, had his partner held ace and only one other spade, he would {214} have played the ace on the knave, in order to unblock his partner's suit.

To be able to thus aid a partner, the leads must be thoroughly known, so that from a partner's original lead it may be fairly estimated what other cards of the suit he holds in his hand, and when, consequently, it is desirable to unblock his suit.

ON PLACING THE LEAD.

The player who has to play last has an advantage over the other players. If this last player hold the king and one other card of a suit, he is certain to make a trick with the king, unless it be trumped. If this last player hold ace, queen of a suit, he is certain to make them both, unless one or the other is trumped. Towards the end of a hand, and when a fairly correct estimate may be formed of where certain cards are located, it is of the utmost importance to place the lead either to the right or left, according as you wish your partner or yourself to be led up to as last player. Some simple examples such as the following will illustrate these cases.

A player, Y, holds the king and one other trump (spades), and one trick is required to win the game; he holds also a winning heart. His partner Z plays a thirteenth diamond, which is not trumped by the second player, who discards a heart. The ace and queen of spades are in hand somewhere, and may both be held by an adversary. Y must therefore play his winning heart on the thirteenth diamond, when the left adversary, after trumping, must lead up to the king of spades guarded, when consequently the king must win a trick, and the game. Simple {215} at this proceeding is, bad players will frequently fail to grasp the situation, and will indulge in vain imaginations, such as that their partner has played this thirteenth card in order to ask for the best trump to be played on it. Or that the partner holds the ace of trumps, and fears to play it out, lest he might catch his partner's king, not perceiving that, if that is so, the game is a certainty in any case. Such singular ideas are by no means uncommon with the bad player.

Each time a player leads a fresh suit in which he is weak, he is playing a dangerous game, inasmuch as he is giving an adversary the advantage of being last player. It is a common error of the bad player to change the suit at random, when he finds his partner possesses little strength in the one originally led by him. He thus continues to sacrifice his partner, and loses trick after trick. The following is an example from actual play. A held queen, eight, five, and two of spades, ten, eight, and three of diamonds (trumps), knave, eight, five, and two of clubs, the six and four of hearts.

B, his partner, held king, and two small spades, king, and two small diamonds (trumps), king, and three small clubs, king, and two small hearts.

A led two of spades, B played king third in hand, which was captured by ace in the fourth (Z's) hand.

Z returned a spade, which A won with the queen.

A now led two of clubs, B played king, which was also captured by Z with ace. Z returned a small club, which Y, his partner, won with queen.

Y then led a small heart, which Z won with queen, and returned ace, then a small heart. A trumped the small heart, and B's king fell. A, after due {216} consideration, now led one of his two remaining trumps. B's king was captured by the ace; and thus, by his partner's changes of suit and trumping, B, with four kings, did not win a trick with any one of them.

It is an old and well-known maxim, that a player should be cautious how he changes suits. If the adversaries hold the best cards of a suit, they must make these, and it is far better to let them do so by playing a third round of that suit, and thus placing the lead in the hand of one of the adversaries, than to open another suit in which no high card is held.

The following examples of placing the lead are useful, and should be remembered, because either exactly such cases or others which are very similar are perpetually recurring towards the end of a hand.

You hold the losing trump--one other in against you and to your left (trumps being spades)--the ace, queen of clubs, the ace, queen of hearts.

The king of clubs and the king of hearts are somewhere in the other three hands. Three tricks are required to win or save the game. The diamonds are all out. To make a certainty of winning three tricks, play the losing trump; you must then be led up to either in clubs, or hearts, and must win three tricks out of your own hand.

It is sometimes advisable to throw away what would be the best card in your hand in order to place the lead, or at least to attempt to place it. The following is an example of such a case.

You hold four cards, the ace, queen of spades (trumps), the king and one other heart. The king of spades was turned up to your right, and you know {217} another trump guards the king; no trumps are in the other hands.

Your left adversary leads the ace of hearts; when he leads another heart you must win with the king and must lead up to the king of trumps, when you win only two tricks. If you throw your king of hearts on the ace, you avoid obtaining the lead, and your partner may hold the queen, and your ace, queen of trumps will then both win tricks. Should your partner not hold the queen, you lose nothing by this play, as you must make your ace, queen of trumps if you have not the lead, and if you retained the king of hearts you could not by any possibility win more than two tricks.

Sometimes one holds what is called a trump too many; such a case is the following. You hold ace, queen, and one small trump (spades), and a losing diamond; your partner holds the best diamond. The king of spades is on your right and is guarded, and this adversary has but two trumps. Your partner has no trump, and leads the ace of hearts. If you discard your diamond on this ace of hearts, you must trump the best diamond, and must then lead up to the king of trumps, when you win only three tricks out of the four. If, however, you trump your partner's ace of hearts, and lead the diamond, you again transfer the lead to your partner, and you make all four tricks, as the king of trumps cannot win.

In order to thoroughly master these simple problems, it is advisable to place the cards on the table before you, and examine such cases. They frequently occur, and are, more frequently than not, quite overlooked by bad players, who would think {218} it quite absurd to trump a partner's ace, and who omit to notice the importance of placing the lead.

It is by the manner in which the last four or five cards in a hand are played that skill in Whist is shown; two and sometimes three or four tricks are lost by bad play, when only five or six cards remain in each hand.

THE PLAY OF THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CARDS.

The play of a twelfth or a thirteenth card is one requiring careful consideration. A player may hold the twelfth card, and he may know that his partner does not hold the thirteenth. He may know, and ought to know, whether his card is the higher or lower of the two remaining. He ought also to know, from the leads and return leads, whether the right or left adversary holds the other card of the suit. A player who does not note such details would be better employed in a game of Beggar-my-neighbour than at Whist, the former game being more suited to his intellectual capacity.