St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-15
Table 2.
NOTES.

TaDle l.
Trick 2-South opens his heart suit. West
plays king second hand and North starts the
unlocking play by holding up his lowest card
of the suit.
Trick 4-North returns the highest of three
remaining cards of his partners suit This
is contrary to rule, but we think it sound in
this instance, as the ten may enable South to
make successful finesse that he otherwise
would not venture.
Tricks 6-S-We do not see South's object in
leading king of trumps and then forcing his
partner to use high trump on the diamond;
or, rather, we do not think this line OF play
sound; South has two good hearts, and the
major tenace in diamonds; with this holding,
a lead of trumps is quite justified, in spite of
the strong spade suit that East has shown,
but with the play Of the eight by North, in
dicating strong probability that he is starting
an echo, we should certainly continue the
trump lead.
Tricks 9-1O-After trumping the diamond with
the jack, North is quite justified in placing
ace and two other trumps with South from
his lead Of king at trick 6, and his deliberate
force of North at trick 8. North, therefore,
! leads queen, and follows with his last trump
to pick UP what is presumably Vests last
trump. The folly of irregular plays like that
of South in leading king of trumps is clearly
| illustrated here; North is deceived, and loses
a trick through no fault of his own.
Tricks 11-13-West gets in with the thir-
teenth trump established in his hand by the
courtesy of his opponents, and East takes two
spade tricks.
Table 3
Trick 2--South plays whist here; he returns
the eight Of diamonds through Vests suit;
the object of this is to induce West to think
it is the highest he has, and perhaps the only
one, and to play queen if he has it, which
North will trump, leaving South with the
major tenace. OF course South sees that
North has queen alone, no more diamonds,
but West would naturally play him for jack
! and one small if West has queen; if West has
not queen, then North has it, and South still
| has the tenace. We think this lead by South
much preferable to opening his heart suit on
the general principle that it is disadvantage
| 30 - {I,:o
idea we quite agree with Foster, though we
| dispute the argument for the short suit lead
| that he draws from this premise.
| Trick 3-North opens his heart suit, for,
though he figures South for some strength in
trumps, and probable strength in diamonds
drawing these inferences from Souths return
of the diamond, yet his hand is painfully
weak in suit, and the trump lead looks too
forward.
Trick 4-West's return of the heart is per-
haps the best he has to do though it invites
a force, which does not seem to be particularly
| desirable, as West has four trumps.
Trick 5-East is justified in leading third
round OF hearts to force West but we prefer
the lead of spade to get the out of the
way. North plays the 10 of hearts, not as
false card, but as a one-card trump call. 1t
can be nothing else, for it is an unnecessarily
| high card he must have one smaller;
! North marks the queen of hearts with South.
Trick 6-West is clearly deceived as to the
! position of the diamonds, or he would have
let that suit severely alone; we think the lead
of a spade better, there is certainly some
thing wrong about the diamond development
North discards spade, not wishing to weaken
his trump hand, and figuring that there is a
! strong probability that South has the best
diamond.
Tricks 7-9-South correctly interprets North's
play of ten of hearts at trick as a trump call,
and answers it with great effect, exhausting
the adversaries trumps by his three swings.
Tricks 10-13-North gives South the lead with
a heart, and South makes his jack of dia-
monds and of spades. East and West get
no spade trick, while at table they secured
two.
FERGUS FALLS VS.. ST. PAUL.
The following deal, played in the Fergus
Fails match shows a gain of four tricks for
st. Paul. While this result was due largely
to the bad play of Fergus Falls, yet there
are some very interesting points of play in the
deal that justify its publication.
DEAL 6.
The Hands
North-spades, A. @, 5. A. 3, 2; hearts, s.
2; clubs, TO- 6, 2; diamonds, Q, g. East
Spades, none; hearts, X, Q, 8, 8, 8; clubs
@, ], 3, 7, 4; diamonds s, 5, A. South
Spades, X, 10, s, T. hearts, J. Z, 6, 4; clubs
K, 5; diamonds, A, 10, 2. West-Spades, j.
9, 6: hearts, A, 10; clubs, A, s, 8; diamonds
K. J. Z, 6, 3. King Of hearts turned Leader
South.
The Play
Table l. Table .