, 1889-09-22
OBSERVATIONS on WHIST.
A Few Remark About the Proper Man
gemen of Trumps.

A Few Remark About the Proper Man
Rgement of Trumps.
No one can hope to become a good whist
player who allows himself 10 be blindly guild
ed by the rules without reasoning out their
why and wherefore. No good whist rule was
ever in force that there was not a good reason
for, and when one rule is substituted for an
other it Is because there Is a better reason for
the former; but 1t Is important to know what
the reason is, otherwise the result is a sort of
parrot whist. / will venture to say that
there are a great many players who know
that 1t is the rule to play third hand high,
but couldn't give the reason to save them 1t
Is perhaps in the management of trumps that
this kind Of player is most often at a disad-
vantage. There Is more latitude in playing
trumps than in any other branch of the
game; but when their use is once understood
it is no moro difficult to play them than plain
cards.
The only difference between a trump and a
plain card Is this: That when you have no
cards OF the suit led you can trump the trick.
This Is the one advantage that a trump has
over a plain card. But let US consider what
an immense advantage this Is First, then,
the aim Of every whist player is to get his
long suit established, or that Of his partner,
for 1t must not be forgotten that the best
whist is always played as II the two hands
yours and your partners were one. To es-
tablish a suit Is to hold the command of It.
Sometimes your suit is already established for
you-for instance, where you originnify-hold
the a, X and q. Now, If it were not for the
trump and its peculiar advantage over the
other suits, whist playing would be AS easy,
to use n homely expression, as rolling of a
log. But an established suit may be of no
value whatever II a trump is played against
itkin the hands of an opponent. For instance,
you have a suit of seven originally, and after
the first two rounds you have established it
you have Ave cnrds of the suit, the rest of
which have been played.
Now it Is obvious that II the trumps were
all out, these five cards Csupposing that you
have the lead are good for five tricks. But
let us carry the illustration a little further.
Suppose that trumps have gone around three
times, and that one Of your opponents holds
the thirteenth. Suppose that he has the com
mand of a long plain suit-say the a, k,
q and two or three small ones. Now 1t
Is plain that the whole play hinges on that
one little trump. You lead from your estab-
lished suit, your opponent trumps and then
leads out his suit and makes the game.
Upon reflection it will be seen why the rule
for trumps is to lead them when you have five
or more. There are only two ways In which
trumps can be used. II you have five or
more and In some cnSeS only IOurD III Is better
to play them and thus exhaust the trumps in
the hands or your opponents. The chances
are reasonably certain that you can do this
in four rounds, and you may do 1t In three;
indeed, II your partner has four trumps
originally you may do it in two, so that you
will hold, after your opponents trumps have
been exhausted. one or two with which you
can often turn the tide OF the game.
This is one way to play trumps. The other
is, where you hnve only to two or three of
them. In this case you play a defensive
game, and it romans for you to use them as
best you can by trumping. This, of course,
can only be done when a suit is led OF which
you have no cards. But this is where the
higher skill of the whist player is shown. For
instance, A has five trumps and good plain
suits besides, and his play is to get the trumps
out. But there is a possibility that his part
ner, r, can make his trumps. II A leads the
trumps out he of course exhausts them from
BIS hand us well as from his opponents, but
IL he can FIRST succeed in playing a suit which
B hasn't got, B can thus be enabled to make
good his few trumps, or one of them, and
save q trick or two. Then A can proceed and
lead his trumps. This is, however, very dali-
cate work, and is only mentioned here to IL
lustrnte some OF the possibilities OF the game.
1t is frequently done by the best players,
with good effect. Tom LANSING.