The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-18
POINTS ON CARDS.
A Few Easy but Important Questions
About Whist Answered


About Whist Answered.
Enthusiastic was reading an early edt-
ton of Pole the other day, in which he
says that in opening your long suit you
should lead the lowest. But the other
night when l was playing with fellow
from Boston he insisted upon my leading
what he called the fourth best" What
did he mean?
Answer-He meant that he wanted you
to play the American game, which has now
been adopted by English players and in
corporated into the English rules The
reason why he wanted you to play the
fourth best was so that he could tell by this
and your after play just how many cards
of that suit you held originally The
fourth best must necessarily be the
fourth card from the top of the
suit. If afterward you throw off
two cards lower than this he knows that
you must have held six originally; if you
throw off only one you must have held five,
and if you do not throw off any that you
held four, and the first card you played
was the lowest
Enthusiastic begin to understand, so if
you led originally a two spot it shows your
partner at once that the longest suit you
have has only four cards, and that you
haven't much of a hand anyway. But
suppose it is necessary for me to lead from
high carr 1rst, then what do | do?
Answer-When you do play low card;
| play the original fourth best. Where you
have suit of five headed by the ace you
| play the ace first, and then the fourth best,
or the card next to the lowest.
Enthusiast-Still it seems to me that
| this rule does not convey enough good for
| the amount of trouble it causes, or perhaps
l should say that it takes too long to
convey the information For instance
| suppose have long suit of six. | lead
originally my fourth best, and this first
trick is taken by my partner, who returns
his suit and the second trick is taken by
| our opponents, who succeed in holding the
lead three or four tricks more. In the
mean time half of the game has been played
and my fourth best lead hasn't done par
ticle of good. Indeed, my partner would
have to have phenomenal memory to
know what card had played.
| Answer-You forget one thing. 1t is
not so much what cards you follow the
fourth best with as the simple fact that
you play it which conveys the informa-
| UlOu IL YOU nave SIX Cdr(lS anu play CQe
| fourth best, it is not necessary for you to
play the two cards lower than that in or
der to show your partner that you held six
originally, simply because the fall of the
cards on the first round will go far to show
this For instance, you hold O., 10, s, 4, 3,
q You lead the4. Your partner knows that
your opponents, if they throw off, will throw
| off the lowest cards they have (unless they
are signalling). For instance, you lead the
4, your left hand opponent plays the 6,
your partner the ace and your right hand
opponent the 7. Now it takes no extraor>
binary genius on your partners part to tell
that you must have the 3 and 3. OF course
where your opponents take the trick there
is always some doubt about one card
Nevertheless the lead of the fourth best
in itself, as you will see upon reflection, is
a valuable medium of information
Tom MASON