The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-12-23
FOR LOVERS OF WHIST.
Howell Gives His Views On Long
Suit Openings.
Attacks Pole aud Cavsndish--LogicaI
Long Suit Leads.


form OF initiative at whist Is the long suit
opening. BY this we mean not the Pole
Cavendish lead from the longest suit In
hand without regard TO other streng 9Th, buo
the lead OF q small card from good uues-
tablished plain suit. with considerable
trump strength and some protection Ia the
other suits. The whist player who consid-
ers his whole hand and all its possibilities
does not Invariably begin with his best
suit. He looks at the different elements
of his holding-best suit, trumps, high
cards In short suits, short suits without
high cards-and not at the one element,
the best suit, alone. II outside of the best
suit he has little or no strength, he reasons
that the hand may perhaps be opened In q
more advantageous manner than by the
original lead from the best or longest suit.
Suppose you hold hearts Grumpy, 8, q;
clubs, q, z, o, 4, 3; diamonds, 2, o, 8, II
spades, 10, s. What is the use Of opening
the clubsi You may establish them; but,
even II you do, what thenS Let partner
win two rounds with the king and ace,
leaving you with the best one, what is his
next play? Unless he has quite extraor-
dinary trump strength q trump lead will
not help you. II he goes on with the clubs,
your hand will be dead after the third
round IL he opens another plain suit he
Is at the mercy OF the adversaries, for you
cannot assist him.
And you may be sure--mathematicall
sure--that the odds are far and away
against his having such strength that
your opening Of the clubs can be Of any
stratcgical benefit TO your combined hands.
In such case the practitioner of the adj
vanced game resorts to the short suit OPEN
ing, which, from the given hand, Is the 8
10. In previous article In this series
have pointed out some Of the virtues Of the
short suit opening---the gambit, we call ID
and In future articles hope to say more
on this subject For the present desire
merely TO assert as distinctly as can that
the logical player, nntrammeled by the
Pole -Cavendish long suit or nothing rule,
does not open his hand with a small card
from his best suit unless he Las such
accompanying strength In other directions
-trumps and re-entry--that with such as
sistancc as partner may probably be able
to render him he may not only esta blish
his best suit, but may also get trumps out
and bring in" the suit--that is, mako
tricks with the small cards of t.
Let me say by way Of parentheses that
by "the long suit pening'' mean only
the lead OF small card from . long suit.
Is long suit opening In sense, but <
prefer to call 1t high card opening. Sucly
u combination yor can open without de-
pending on partner for anything. The
long suit opening as wish to have It un-
de-stood Is bid or call for partners AS
sistance and its success depends on the
amount Of assistance bc 1an give you.
And this nuggests the very importaut
feature Of our long suit opening as con-
trnstcd with the Pole Cavendish idca-thau
tbe small caro- lead under our system Of
play means something to partner; means
great deal; means: Partner, my hand
Is strong Back me up fearlessly. Play
forward game Bend every energy to tie
bringing in of my suit DO not be afraid
to sacrifice your hand for mine. UnlesJ
your hand il much below the average In
strength we have great SCORE" This In
the informatory feature Of our logical Iony
salt opening Its value cannot be over
estimated.
In whist Openings" defined th9
"minimum limit Of long suit strength
as Q) plain suit of at least i've cards, in>
cluding two or more high ones, 10 or bst>
ter; (2) either four trumps or two or tire1
very good ones; (S) reasonably sure re-
entry, such as an ace or both king end
queen, In snother plain suit After q
great deal OF practice have found no rcn>
son to change those requirements In ma
terial degree OF course you may weigh
tie several elements OF strength together.
end IL one element Is extraordinarily good
II may make up FOR deficiency In another
direction. Let us take hypothetical long
suit hand and examine IL in detail. Say
you have hearts (trump), Q, 10, Q, 2; clubs,
A, j, 8, B, 2; diamonds, 10; spades, X, @.
o. Here are all the requisites for the
long suit game-tbe excellent plain suit
(clubs), the four card trump suit and TIE
reasonably sure re-entry In spades. Now.
II the long plain suit were even longer,
say A, j, 8, 8, 8, 2, and the trumps wcro
only three, say q, 10, o, we might still pre-
fer the long suit to the short suit opening,
or, with the same four trumps, O, 10, 8, 2.
and the six clubs, A, y, 8, 8, 3, 2, IL tho
re-entry suit Is weaker say only X, q,
instead Of X, q, 6, we should again be
justified I'm starting the long suit But,
on the other hand. II one element of the
given hand were weaker than Ii is without
any compensating advantage, we miyhs
rather open short" For instance, tnl-e
ono less small club, so that you hayo A.
y, \, 2, and one more small diamond, 10,
b, the other suits remaining the same, ard
you might open with the ID TO- This
ringing tho changes on hand 10 very
Instructive exercise FOR the student. There
Is no better way indeed of educating the
Judgment upon this particular poirt--
when and when not to open hand with
the best suit
1 append an example Of long suit play
from actual practice. 1t occurred in q re-
cent match for the vice presidents trophy
Of the New England Whist association.
The leaders, hand Is one Of these which
We have just been considering. West turns
the II 3. North leads TO the first trick.
The winning card In each trick Is under
lined, and the card underneath Is led next:
North. East. South. Wcss.
Trick 1.........C CO CO CT
Trick 2..........H 0 HI IA HS
Trick 3..........Dl0 DJ DIX D2
Trick 4..........H 10 HA H5 s2