The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25

ca1ly nothing, but the case mentioned
aboNefis at least as significant as the
7 ST. Paul. Hamilton deal cited nv Mr.
Bum, and all dealing tests reported
TO US have favored our side Of the
contention.
We think another difference between
Mr Bunn's views and ours on the
point Is that Mr. Bum practically
never opens short suit, whereas we
frequently pick such suit as queen,
jack with or without one smalD, or
queen and one small, in preference to
four-card suit we do not desire to
open. We, in other words, believe the
principle of the long suit leading has
It's exceptions, although in probably
nine hands out of every ten it Is the
wisest plan to follow. When we make
a short-suit queen opening we want
1t easily distinguished by partner. and
therefore much prefer the ten opening
from queen, jack, ten, which necessarily
prevents the same card being used
with king, jack, ten
We should have little hesitation in
abandoning the old ten lead and adj
dopting the new, if our experience
tricks by doing so. Mr.. Work uses very
strong arguments when he recites the
favorable experience of the. Hamilton
team with the new leads, and mentions
the desertion of the old leads by Chi
cago, New York, Baltimore, New Jer-
sey and Philadelphia, and perhaps we
should allow the experience of the ac-
knOwledged experts that compose those
teams to overrufe us in this matter
We are not yet, however, quite convert
ed, unreasonable astf 1t may appear
While we are ready to give proper
weight to the opinions and experience
of others, and to the result of the test
deals mentionedsaby Mr.. Work, our
views must be governed to a certain
extent by our personal experience, and
as we have before stated, that is very
much in favor of the old lead of the
ten from the king, jack, ten combi-
nation. st. Paul. 81 experience with this
lead at Brooklynl wass uniformly favor
able; we think, that analysis Of the
deals in which the play arose will show
a total gain of seven or eight tricks
for the ten lead = in this estimate we
credit the deal in the Hamilton-St
Paul match mentioned in our article
and in Mr.. works criticism, with a
gain of but one trick for the ten lead,
as we have refreshed our recollection
of the deal and believe that the other
tricks were lost by Hamilton through
a slip of one Of its players.
Mr.. Works opinion of the f1nesse of
the jack on the second round, in plain
suits comedies entirely with our own.
We confined our argument based On
the finease wholly to the trump suit,
and do not in ordinary cases favor
finesse on the second round of such
a plain suit. The instance cited by Mr..
Work is entitled to some weight, but
suppose the nine solus had been with
an adversary, and the ace, queen,
against? We recall an instance that
cost US exactly four tricks In a pro-
gressive match: A novice led the deuce
from king, queen, jack, deuce, his part
ner won with the nine solus, and the
result was magnificent. We do not
intend to discredit Mr.. Works example,
but simply confirm his statement that
single instances mean practically moth
ing. OF course IL the queen is to
be used to any extent, as a short suit
opening, that Is a reason for abandon
Ing the queen lead from queen, jack,
ten. as 1t is also reason for abandon
ing the queen lead from king, queen.
But we can not consider 1t very
strong reason, while the long suit