Chapter VIII: Part I: General Principles (2)

In the second round of a suit, if you have the winning card, you should--in plain suits--generally put it on second hand, subject to a finesse that will certainly be successful; but in trumps there are many cases in which you should not, especially if you have numerical strength in trumps, and a good hand besides. Your winning trump must make, and, by passing the second round, you perhaps enable your partner to win with a third best trump--or even a smaller one--yourself retaining the command.

If, when led through in the second round of a suit, you conclude from the previous fall of the cards that the second best card is to your right, it is sometimes advisable to put on the third best. You thus save your partner's hand if he holds the best. For instance: if knave is led in the first round, and your partner (then second player) puts on king, which wins the trick, it is clear (if the ten is your best) that your partner has the ace, for the third player could not win the king, and the leader could not have led from ace, knave. If your right-hand adversary afterwards returns the suit through you, you should put on the ten in order to save your partner's ace.

THE THIRD HAND.

(_See_ also "Whist Developments." DE LA RUE & Co.)

In the first round of a suit, you should generally

8. PLAY YOUR HIGHEST CARD THIRD HAND,

in order to strengthen your partner. You presume that he leads from his strong suit, and wants to get the winning cards of it out of his way; you, therefore, do not finesse, but play your highest, remembering that you play the lowest of a sequence.

With ace, queen (and, of course, ace, queen, knave, &c., in sequence) you do finesse, for, in this case, the finesse cannot be left to your partner. In trumps you may finesse ace, knave, if an honour is turned up to your right. Some players finesse knave with king, knave, &c.; but it is contrary to principle to finesse in your partner's strong suit.

If your partner leads a high card originally, you assume it is led from one of the combinations given in the Analysis of Leads (pp. 64-71), and your play third hand must be guided by a consideration of the combination led from. With ace, you pass queen led; you are then in much the same position as though a small card were led, and you finessed with ace, queen.

Knave, led originally, is from king, queen, knave, &c. (some players lead knave from knave, ten, nine, &c.) In either case, if you hold ace with one small card, play the ace; with more than one small card, pass (_see_ p. 98). If your only honour is the king, you should pass knave led. For, the second hand having passed, you assume ace to be to your left (p. 88). Should the queen be there also, you waste the king by covering; and if queen is to your right, the knave forces the ace.

Ten may be led originally from king, queen, knave, ten, or from king, knave, ten, &c. If you hold ace, you should put it on; but if you hold queen, you should pass. Holding both ace and queen, your play depends on whether you wish to obtain the lead on the first round of the suit.

If your partner opens a suit, late in a hand, with a high card, your play, third hand, will depend on your judgment of the character of the lead. If it is probable that your partner has led from a weak suit, you will often be right to finesse king, knave, &c., or to pass his card altogether, so as not to give up the entire command of the suit. Thus, if ten is led and you hold ace, knave, &c., it is clear that the card led is the highest your partner holds in the suit. You therefore pass, and unless both king and queen are to your left, you remain with the tenace. Similar remarks apply to a forced lead of knave, when you hold ace, ten, &c. If you have considerable strength in a suit in which a strengthening card is led, you must be guided by your strength in trumps. Thus, your partner leads knave from a weak suit, and you hold ace, king, and small ones. You may, as a rule, pass the knave if you are strong in trumps, but not if weak.

In the second round of a suit, if you (third player) hold the best and third best cards, and you have no indication as to the position of the intermediate card, your play should again depend on your strength in trumps. If weak in trumps, secure the trick at once; if strong in trumps, and especially if strong enough to lead a trump (_see_ Management of Trumps, pp. 120-24), should the finesse succeed, it is generally right to make it. If you hold second and fourth best, you may nearly always finesse; for you conclude that the winning card is over you in the fourth hand, since your partner has not led it, and the second player has not put it on. If the third best lies over you also, you cannot prevent the tenace from making, and your only chance, therefore, is to finesse. Thus, if you lead a small card from queen, ten, and two small ones, your partner wins the first trick with the king, and returns a small one. The ace is certainly to your left; you therefore finesse the ten, for if your left-hand adversary holds ace and knave he must make them both; but, otherwise, your ten forces the ace, and you are left with the best. In trumps, the winning card is often held up by the adversary, but you must submit to this contingency, and generally finesse.

It is of no use to finesse against your right-hand adversary in a suit in which he has shown weakness. For instance, if the second hand has none of the suit led, and does not trump it, you (third hand) should not finesse a major tenace (_i.e._, the best and third best cards). This often occurs in the second or third round of a suit; also, if your partner (third player) has won a trick very cheaply, and the suit is returned, it is rarely of any use to finesse if you have the winning card.

In some few positions, however, it is necessary to finesse, even if the second player holds nothing. Thus, your partner leads a knave, and the second hand renounces (_i.e._, does not follow suit); if you (third player) hold king, it is useless to cover, as ace, queen in the fourth hand must make. Again, you have king, and two small trumps; your partner leads a small one; the second hand renounces. If you want one trick to win or save the game, you (third player) play a small trump, when the fourth player will be obliged to lead up to your king guarded.

The state of the game and of the score will often direct as to a finesse late in a hand. Thus, if you hold a winning card, and want one trick to save or win the game, of course you should not run any risk. A finesse against even one card is generally wrong, if, by playing otherwise, you prevent the adversary from scoring three or five. A finesse is almost always bad, if by not finessing you insure the odd trick, as that makes a difference of two to the score. In the opposite case, a finesse is generally right (sometimes even against more than one card), if its success gives you the odd trick, or puts you at the score of three or five.

The considerations as to finessing and the course of play generally, that come in as the hand proceeds, are so complicated, and depend so much on inferences from previous play, and on the state of the score, that one can scarcely do more than to state a few broad rules, and to add some examples. Illustrations of the conduct of the hand at advanced periods will be found in Sections 17 and 18 (pp. 134-155), and more in the hands.

THE FOURTH HAND.

The fourth player having, with a few exceptions, merely to win the trick, if against him, his play involves no further development of general principles.

The exceptional cases, where the fourth hand should not win the trick though he can, or should win his partner's trick in order to get the lead, depend so much on the previous fall of the cards, that they can best be illustrated in the hands.

THE COMMAND OF SUITS.

(_See_ also Appendix B., pp. 287-8.)

In the foregoing chapters it has been incidentally stated that you should

9. KEEP THE COMMAND OF YOUR ADVERSARY'S SUIT: AND

10. GET RID OF THE COMMAND OF YOUR PARTNER'S SUIT.

The reasons will be obvious to those who are familiar with the previous pages; in the first case, you obstruct the adversaries' suits, and prevent their establishing them; in the second case, you assist in clearing the suit for your partner.

Thus, with ace and queen only of a suit led by your partner, if you win with the queen, play out the ace at once; but, if the suit is led by your adversary, keep the ace in your hand. If you play out the winning card of the opponent's suit in hopes of trumping the next round, which is often done by those who play a trumping game, you do just what the adversaries want; for the lead of the ace gives them valuable assistance towards bringing in their suit when trumps are out.

Though the advantage of getting rid of the command of a suit, of which your partner has declared numerical strength, is recognised theoretically, the application of the principle is much neglected in practice. In order to get rid, at the proper moment, of the command of your partner's suit, a thorough knowledge of the Analysis of Leads is requisite, as the following examples will show:--1. Your partner leads ace, originally, of a plain suit. He has led from ace, queen, knave, &c., or from a suit of five cards at least. You have four of the suit, say ten, nine, eight, two. To his ace, you should play the eight, not the two. All follow suit, and your partner continues with knave, or with a small card. You now know for certain that he led from five at least. You should play the nine, even if the second hand puts on a winning card or a trump. When the suit is led again, you should play the ten. Your partner is left with two small cards, and you do not block his suit; if you had played two, eight, nine, it is very probable that you would keep the command of the suit with the ten. 2. If instead of ten, nine, eight, two, you held, say, ten, nine, three, two, and your partner leads ace and a small one, you should similarly play the nine on the second round. 3. If your partner led from ace, queen, knave and one small one (as you will be informed by his leading queen after ace), you cannot block the suit; but, if you have played the eight to the ace, as in Example 1, you must still play the nine to the queen, or you have called for trumps (_see_ p. 125). You lose nothing by this, as you and your partner still retain the winning cards of the suit. If on the third round you find it necessary to play your small card, you have not called for trumps (_see_ Appendix B, pp. 287-8). 4. Similarly, you have king, queen, and two small cards of a plain suit of which your partner leads ace and a small one. All follow suit to the ace; the second hand trumps the small one. You should play the queen, and to the third round the king. 5. Your partner leads knave of a plain suit originally, from king, queen, knave, and at least two small cards. The second hand plays a small card. You (third hand) hold ace, &c. Whether or not you should put on the ace, depends on the number of small cards you hold. Having only one small card, you should play the ace, that you may not block the suit. Having more than one small card, you pass the knave. Suppose the knave wins the trick, and your partner continues with king or queen. If you now remain with ace and one small card, you should put on the ace; but, if you have ace and two small cards left, you should pass again, as you still have the power of getting rid of the command on the third round. 6. To continue the previous example. Say the two rounds of your partner's suit have resulted in the fall of seven cards of it, and that you still have ace and a small one left. Your adversary now leads the suit a third time, that his partner may trump it. You should play the ace, keeping the small card of the suit of which your partner will still hold two cards. 7. If your partner leads a small card of a plain suit originally, and you can tell from the fall of the cards that the card led was not his absolute lowest, you know he led from a suit of more than four (_see_ Analysis of Leads), and if you had four originally, you should be prepared to get rid of the command on the subsequent rounds. For example:--Your partner leads eight. All follow suit, and the queen falls. On obtaining the lead again, your partner leads the six, showing that he led from at least five cards. Ace comes out. One adversary does not follow suit. You held, originally, knave, five, four, three, and have played the three and the four. Your partner now has the lead again, and leads the king of his suit. You, holding knave and one small one, would play very badly to retain the knave. You should throw the knave on the king, and your partner's suit is freed. 8. Your hand contains four cards, viz., ace and one small spade (spades not having been led), and two losing diamonds; your partner has nothing but spades, of which he leads the king. If you pass it you cannot make more than two tricks, for the winning diamonds are against you in one hand; but, if you win your partner's king, and return the small one, and your partner has led from king, queen, you still win two tricks, and get a chance of making three or four.

A collateral advantage of playing as advised, is that a good partner will often know how many of his suit you still have in hand. Thus, he leads knave, which you pass; he continues with queen, which you win. It ought to be a certainty that you remain with one small card of his suit and no more. If you pass again, it should be equally certain, when your ace comes down in the third round, that you have one small card of the suit in hand. Again: your partner leads ace and knave; knave is won by the adversary with the king. You, holding ten, nine, eight, deuce, have played eight and nine of the suit. If the winner of the trick does not lead a trump, your partner would infer, with tolerable certainty, that you remain with the deuce and ten of his suit, as no one is asking for trumps (_see_ p. 125) and no one has played the deuce in two rounds.

In trumps, the case is somewhat different, as you cannot block your partner's trump suit. It is then only advisable to get out of his way, if you see from the fall of the cards that it is essential he should proceed with trumps. Thus: with ace and one small trump you would not put ace on his knave led, unless very desirous of three rounds of trumps immediately. Moreover, in trumps, your partner can count your hand in another way; for with four trumps you would echo, as will be fully explained under Management of Trumps (p. 128).

You help your partner to get rid of the command of your suit by leading the lowest of a sequence, notwithstanding that it heads your suit, when you want him to win your card if he can. For this reason you lead ten from king, queen, knave, ten; ace, knave from ace, queen, knave, and at least two small cards; and so on. In this last case, if your partner has king, whether he should put it on your knave, or not, depends on how many small cards of the suit he holds. If, when you lead knave, he remains with king and one small one, he should win the knave with the king; but if he has king and two small ones remaining, he should pass the knave, for precisely the same reasons as those given in the previous examples. Again, suppose you are left with knave, ten, and others of a suit, of which your partner can only have king and another (ace and queen being out), though it is uncertain whether he does hold the king. You would cause him to get rid of the king by leading the ten; whereas, if you led the knave, he probably would not part with the king.

Experienced players frequently endeavour to steal a trick, or to obtain the entire command of a suit (_i.e._, to keep a sufficient number of winning or commanding cards in it to make every trick), by _underplaying_. Underplay is keeping up the winning card, generally in the second round of a suit, by leading a low card, though holding the best.

Thus, suppose a small trump is led, and you (fourth player) hold ace, knave, and two small ones, and you win with one of the small ones. If, at a later period of the hand, you return a small trump, you will very likely cause your left-hand adversary to believe that your partner has the ace; consequently, if your left-hand adversary has the king, he may not put it on; your partner will win the second round with the queen, and you will retain the command of the trump suit.

Underplay is an extempore stratagem depending on observation of the previous fall of the cards, and, therefore, best capable of explanation by examples. Thus: A, finding his partner strong in trumps, leads the seven. The king is put on by Y (second hand), which B (third hand) wins, holding ace, queen, ten, nine, eight. It is evident to B that A's seven was his highest trump, as the only higher one in is the knave, and A would never lead the seven from knave, seven. The king having been put on second hand, B concludes that Y, in all probability, holds at most one small trump more. The knave is, to a moral certainty, in Z's hand. B, by leading the eight in the second round, will probably win the trick, and unless Z had four trumps originally, will catch the knave with the queen in the third round. (Further examples of underplay occur in the hands.)

Players should be on their guard against this manœuvre, particularly when second hand, in the second round of a suit, they hold the second best card guarded, and the adversary has been playing a strong game (as by leading trumps), and is left with the long trump, or is certain to be able to obtain the lead again. Then it is often right for the second hand to stick on a singly-guarded second best card, especially if that is the only chance of making it. In the case stated in the previous paragraph, Z's only chance of making the knave, if singly guarded, is to put it on second hand. For, if the queen with small ones is in A's hand, A is sure to finesse on the return of the suit by his partner. Again, take this case: A leads the six of diamonds; Y, with knave, ten, and a small one, puts on the ten; B plays the king, and Z wins it with the ace. Presently, A obtains the lead again, and leads the eight of diamonds. A, having led the lowest of his suit in the first round, it may be inferred that he has led from a strong suit--headed in this case by the queen--and that he is underplaying with, probably, queen and nine in his hand. Y should observe this, and in the second round should win the eight with the knave.

Refusing to play the winning card in the first and second rounds of a suit--commonly called _holding up_--is, in fact, a species of underplay. For example:--1. Trumps are led by the player to your left; the third player wins with the ace, and returns the suit through your hand. If you are left with king and one or more small ones, you should play a small one, unless the circumstances of the hand are such that you deem it advantageous to stop the trump lead. The original trump leader, not knowing but that the king is in your partner's hand, will probably finesse, and your partner thus has a chance of making the third best trump, even though unguarded. If your partner has neither second nor third best trump, no harm is done, as you will then probably make but one trick in the suit, however you play. 2. Again, ten tricks are played, and each player is left with three cards of a suit not opened. If the second player puts on the queen (from which it may be inferred that he holds the king also), the third hand should not cover with the ace. For, by winning the trick, he must lead up to king guarded; but, by passing it, he leaves the lead with the second player, and takes the best chance of making two tricks. 3. One more example will suffice: A has the last trump, and ace, ten, and three small cards of a suit not led. The adversary now leads the king, and follows with the queen of that suit. A should pass them both; by so doing he will probably make three tricks in the suit if the cards are equally divided.

DISCARDING.

When you cannot follow suit, you should

11. DISCARD FROM YOUR WEAKEST SUIT.

You weaken a suit by discarding from it, and lessen the number of long cards you might otherwise establish and bring in (_i.e._, make tricks with if trumps are out, and you obtain the lead after the establishment of your suit). On the other hand, you do but little harm by throwing from a suit in which you are already weak. Your partner should understand that your first or _original discard_ is from your _weakest suit_, just as he understands that your original lead is from your strongest suit.

But, as in the case of leads, you are sometimes obliged to lead from a weak suit, or to make a forced lead, so sometimes you have to make a _forced discard_. Forced discards require much more careful consideration than they generally receive.

It is clear that if the opponents declare great strength in trumps (by leading trumps or asking for them, as will be fully explained in