Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-03-28


What Is the real game Of whist the reader
may ask, If domestic whist is not whist at ALP
Is not the object the same? No doubt 1t is. The
object OF whist Is to secure al many tricks as
possible. High cards tell at whist as at humble
puppy q thank thee, Pembridge for teaching
me that WORLDLY Nay, in quite q number of
hands luck tells as much at one game as at the
other, and If the whist player is of sordid mind,
as many are, he rejoices at the dull hands in
which he has only had to play out winning
cards as much as the veriest duffer of domestic
whist at the way in which aces and kings take
tr1cks. But whist Is game of science, game
calling for the exercise of keen perception,
Watch1ulness- memory, patience, and trust in
sound like exaggeration to say that whist is far
better calculated to develop the mind than
many things taught at school, yet many a man
can perceive real gain to his mental qualities
from whist practice who would find it hard to
recognize any good which he has obtained from
learning how 10 write Latin verses with due
attention to the niceties of the cesura a course
of whist play is capital way of training the
memory, the powers of attention, and the tenn
per; but nine boys out of ten gain nothing from
course of practice in determining the greatest
common measures and the least common null
tiples of algebraical quantities.
Indeed, many of our best whist players are
complaining that whist is becoming too full of
points requiring 10 be noticed and kept in the
memory. system has come into existence
within the last thirty or forty years by which q
player can convey information to his partner in
sVng ada to Of Wnst
players now have to be constantly looking out
for this signal or that indication. Many of the
old players determine to have nothing to do
with all this signaling, but, alas for them they
have no choice. 1t is too strong for them.
t they may sg9a nc
to any signal made by their partner, they must
notice the signals alike of their partner and
happen, for which their partners will properly
hold them responsible. Thus, a player sig
m q
now one of the other players has failed to
notice the signal. He falls naturally into
has led trumps is strong in them, and that
the other adversary is presumably weak. Under
TINS us tai b ne forces what ne sup
ity enables the weak hand to make trumps
which would otherwise have fallen idle. Or. on
the other hand, having a chance of forcing the
strong trump hand. the player who has failed
to notice the signal refrains relgiously from
the enemy instead of cutting down his trump
strength. Under these circumstances part
ner, ii of the reproachful sort, can rebuke much
merely been overlooked To the reprOach,
"why did You not lead me trump when sig
naled?" there is always the ready answer, 81
saw your signal, and declined to respond to
it because object to the signaling system"
But what answer can be made when your part
ner says: "My good sir, you played the enemy's
you deliberately forced H. giving him Just the
trick which made their game; or you failed to
our gamer You cannot answer that you saw
the signal, but preferred to sacrifice the game
rather than act upon it. You are obliged to
tell the truth land what could be more pain
ful?) that you had failed to notice the enemy's
signal.
rives its interest entirely from strategy, by
which either tricks made by cards which
would not, but for such strategy, have power to
take those tricks, or by which the plans of the
adverSaries to achieve such ends are detected
and foiled. Tricks may be made by high cards,
but there is no interest in that. Any one can
take-a trick with the ace of trumps. Tricks may
be made by finesse-that is, by playing, instead
of the best card, a lower card which may or may
not take the trick according as the intermediate
card or cards lie to the right left. This is bet
ter, but the hneSSe pure and simple is matter
OF mere chance, and SO far as the actual gain of
a trick is concerned there is no more scientific
joy in the success of a finesse than in the cap
ture of a trick by high card. There is science
in the flnesse, but the scientific interest does
not depend on the direct success or failure of
the fineSSe at the moment, but ON its bearing
upon the general play Oft the hand. Again, tricks
may be made by trumping winning cards of pla II
suits. There is often good science in bringing
this about properly, not by the course lead of a
single card or from twO-card suit, but by so
arranging matters that the ruff, when made,
shall not impair, but utilize the trump strength
which lies between you and your partner.
Special pleasure is there in the cross-ruf when
ingeniously. secured and properly employed;
still more pleasure in tempting the enemy to a
crOss-ruf, which, while not lasting long enough
to give them more than three or four tricks,
Inst th s Their W strength
the manRuvres by which'small cards are made
to conquer large bnes, as when long suit is
successfully brought in, or the enemy forced
is there less pleasure in noting and foiling the
plans Of the adversary for achieving these same
pleasure even in noting the skill by which
the enemy achieves success, but fear me
this Is more than most players of whist attain
thusiasm,