Hoyle's Games Modernized Part 25

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.

The least dangerous form in which the twelfth card can be played is when it is the better of the two, and when the thirteenth is in the hand of the adversary on the right. The most dangerous, except when placing the lead for a specific purpose, is when the twelfth card is the lower of the two, and the best is held by the left-hand adversary. When the right adversary holds the better card, to play the losing card affords the left-hand adversary the opportunity of discarding a worthless card. A trick {219} is frequently lost by the eagerness of an inexperienced player to play his losing twelfth card in order to allow his partner to make a trump. Before playing this twelfth card, winning cards should be played in order to prevent the second player getting rid of a loser and then trumping the winning card. For example, two rounds of hearts have been played, ace and king being out. A holds the queen of hearts and a losing twelfth card.

Left-hand adversary holds small heart and small trump. When the losing twelfth card is played, he discards his heart, and is thus enabled to trump the queen. If the queen of hearts had been played first, an extra trick would have been won.

The play of a thirteenth card means one of two things. It is either a demand on your partner to trump with his best trump, or it is an attempt to place the lead. It is for the partner to use his judgment as to which of these proceedings should be adopted. To lead a thirteenth card merely because, as some persons a.s.sert, they "did not know what else to do," is an exhibition of feebleness of intelligence.

MAXIMS.

Those persons who desire to become whist-players, and not mere players at Whist, should bear in mind that Whist is a combination of well-established rules, which should be obeyed; of observation, which is usually misnamed memory, and of reason, which is one of the most essential items towards becoming a whist-player. In order to put as little strain as possible on the reasoning powers, it is advisable to {220} become acquainted with certain maxims which can be committed to memory like proverbs, and can then be acted on during the game. The following will be found useful:--

1. Note whether you hold a sufficient number of winning cards in your hand to make certain of saving the game. If you do, you may run risks in order to win it.

2. Be very careful that you do not make a mistake and imagine that the game cannot be lost, when, by some unusual combination of cards, it _may_ be lost.

3. Immediately your partner leads a card, examine the cards of the suit in your own hand, and form a preliminary opinion of the strength of the suit from which he led. For example, your partner leads the six of spades; you hold ace, queen, and five. The second hand plays the two, you play the queen, fourth hand plays the seven. You thus find the three and four have not been played. Where are they? If the fourth player hold either, he is calling for trumps. You return the ace of spades, the then second player plays the ten, your partner plays the three, and the last player plays the eight. You ought now to know just as well as if you had seen it, that your partner led from king, knave, nine, six, four, and three, and started with the fourth best card. To take a third round of this suit would be childish, as one adversary would make a small trump, the other get rid of a worthless card, and thus show his partner his weak suit.

4. If very strong in two suits, and your partner lead from the third suit, in which you are weak, lead him a trump immediately you gain the lead, although you hold only one or two small trumps. {221}

5. Never hesitate to give your partner the _chance_ of a ruff, unless he has led trumps, or has "called." To refuse to give him this chance merely because you are weak in trumps, is to play a losing game.

6. At the end of a hand, consider the importance of placing the lead. For example, you hold the losing, your partner the winning, trump (clubs), and you hold ace, queen, ten of diamonds. Right-hand adversary leads a small diamond, you play your ten, and it wins the trick; there are other diamonds in your partner's hand, the value of which you do not know. Lead your losing trump, and your partner wins this and returns a diamond, and you win all four tricks. If the king of diamonds be to your right, you would lose a trick by playing ace then queen of diamonds. Feeble players, however, would be certain to lead the ace of diamonds, hoping that their partner would trump the queen, and that thus the trumps would make separately. They give up a certainty for a chance, and consider it safe play to do so.

7. Do your best to help your partner, not to play in opposition to him.

Thus, if your partner call for trumps, lead him your best if you have less than four, your lowest if you hold four, and your fourth best if you hold more than four--the exception being when you hold the ace, which always lead to your partner's call. Do not refuse to lead a trump to your partner's call merely because there is a chance of your ruffing a suit.

This is selfish play, and usually results in a loss, the suit you wish to trump not unusually being your partner's strong suit.

When your partner, by his discard (or otherwise), has declared strength in one suit and weakness in another, lead the best card of the suit in which he {222} has declared strength. It is a criminal act to lead his weak suit, unless you hold all the winning cards of that suit.

It is towards the end of a hand that bad players display the greatest ingenuity in selecting cards, which, when led or played, can alone lose the game. Also revokes are more commonly committed by a player who holds only two or three cards, than they are when he has in his hand seven or eight cards. Never dash out a card, after you have won a trick, without examining the card that both you and your partner have just previously played.

When you have the game in your hand, play as calmly as though you had a difficult hand to play. Time is rarely, if ever, saved by throwing down your cards. The adversaries examine these deliberately as their only chance, and too often it is found that, had the player played in the usual manner, he must have won the game, but, in consequence of his cards being called, he has just missed winning it.

BOOKS ON WHIST.

If the reader is ambitious to become a genuine whist-player, the following should be studied--not glanced at and forgotten, but thoroughly mastered--and their principles systematically practised:

A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. By James Clay.

CAVENDISH ON WHIST.

THE ART OF PRACTICAL WHIST. By Major-General Drayson.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF WHIST. By Dr. W. Pole.

WHIST: (The Club Series). By Dr. W. Pole.

THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF WHIST. By Ernest Bergholt and Leonard Leigh (Philadelphia).

{223}

BRIDGE.

This is a recent development of the grand old game of Whist. Though differing widely in many particulars from its prototype, it is still essentially Whist, the innovations, while introducing a new speculative element, affording even larger opportunities for the exercise of the judgment and skill which Whist proper demands; and the best proof of its merit lies in the fact that even by the "old stagers" of the London clubs it is now generally played in preference to the cla.s.sic game.

The main elements of novelty in Bridge, as distinguished from Whist, may be cla.s.sed under the following heads:--

1. The manner of deciding the trump suit.

2. Different values of tricks and honours according to the suit made trumps.

3. Licence to each party in turn to double and re-double the normal value of tricks.

4. The dealer playing two hands, his partner becoming a "dummy."

Before proceeding to the Laws in detail, it should be premised that Bridge, like ordinary Whist, is played by four persons, two against two, with the full pack of fifty-two cards (two such packs being {224} used alternately).

The players cut for partners and for deal; the cards are shuffled, cut, and dealt in the usual way, thirteen to each player; but no card is turned up, the trump suit being named by the dealer, or by his partner, as hereafter explained.