The San Francisco call., 1896-04-26
aads as before.

Oaklaud-North and South 9.
San Francsco-East and West, 4.
The way this hand should have been
played. had either OF the clubs adopted the
above "irregular lead" to call for trumps
through an honor turned, is as follows:
South should have led the nine of dia-
monds. Vests and East's holding in the
suit keeps them in the dark about the lead
being ''irregular," but North knows the
situation as soon as South places his card
(the nine) on the table.
West must cover with the king, and
would without doubt open from his heart
suit of five cards rather than his four-card
suit of clubs, with the major ''tenace. :"
North should take no chances on the trick
put up his ace (hearts being led), lead
jack of (trumps) spades, and North and
South make eleven tricks.
If West opens the club suit instead of
the heart, the result will be the same.
North and South will win eleven tricks.
1t is barely possible some of our readers
may not know what is meant by an "irreg-
ular lead, !" if so. we will explain it again.
We are, of course. speaking of the original
lead or opening play of the deal.
A regular lead" consists in selecting
the correct card from the suit you lead
from, conforming to all recognized whist
sential to good whist. And an irregular
lead" is selecting card that says the op-
posite, or words to that effect, such as.
Partner, I have not got the cards in m v
hand that my lead indicates AS we said
last week, this play has been in use, like a
great many others not practiced here vet,
for several years. Some of them we in
tend to give to our whist read ers in the
very near future.
ANSWERS TO QUERIES.
stCalling for trumps," known in ENGLAND
g.
promulgated to the whist world by
Celebs in 1853. Nothing in the game Of
whist is so much abused. It is practiced
more by novices than good players. Ex-
perts rarely have occasion to use it. Be-
fore this introduction OF scaling for
jumps" the same play was made to show
partner thew were out of the snit ana de-
sired to ruff
Yes. The suits in whist have for nearly
fifty years been mentioned in the follow
ing order: Spades, hearts, clubs and dia-
monds.
We understand there is scheme on
loot now to have tournament between
the Pacific Coast Whist Association clubs
some time in the near future, to play
regular schedule of games between each
club.
'tPetaluma"-We would return the suit
(diamonds) and take chances OF forcing
the strong trump hand.
No-You must know the leads. No mat
ter how simple we try to write our whist
articles, without you learn the first letter
of the whist alphabet-the correct leads
from every possible combination OF cards
you will have the same difficulty. Study
just little, do.
WHISTLES.
The Trist Duplicate Whist Club gave
their usual monthly entertainment in
their clubrooms last evening. 1t consisted
in playing twenty deals Of progressive
straight whist, under the new "Trist Club
system" Then the general distribution
OF prizes won during the month took
place. after which refreshments were
served by the ladies. The treasurer's re-
port ives read. which stated that the club
was not only entirely out of debt but had
between two and three hundred dollars in
the treasury, and during the month
twenty-one new members had come in.