St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-29
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n OUR WHIST CORNER
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: Yesterday was the day agreed upon
for the match against Des Moines for
the A. w. l.. trophy, and all prepara-
tions had been made for the game.
Yesterday morning a telegram was re-
ceived from William C. Harbach, sec
retary of the Des Moines club, ,announc-
ins that it would be impossible for
that team to play. No further word
has been received to explain the in
ability OF Des Moines TO play nor is II
known when the match will occur, II
at ALL St Paul will not be able to
play next Saturday, owing TO the con-
templated absence from the city of
two members OF the team, and word
has been received from Chicago to re-
serve April II for a match against
team from that club, selected and cap
tanned by Jack Baldwin, who was
member of the team defeated by st.
Paul on Feb. %. Des Moines will be
obliged to postpone its visit until after
April II, and the match must be played
before May l, for the reason that the
winners of the last match prior to that
date are entitled to possession of the
cup until the congress in June, with
out being subject to challenge.
IRREGULAR LEAD AS A TRUMP
CALL.
The irregular lead to signify a call
for trumps through an honor turned
was first advised by Milton c.
Work in whist of Today" 1t has
come into very general favor during
the past year or two and is now used
Of tho strong
whist players Of the country. We be-
Heve the play to be sound in cases
where the irregular lead is Of a card
of the leaders own long suit. and
where 1t is card from a short sequence,
such as king, queen alone; king, queen
and jack; queen, jack, ten, or queen,
Jack. nine. or even queen, jack alone,
or queen, jack and any small card. In
other words, we favor the irregular
lead in cases where the suit or card led
reduces the chance of injury to your
own or partners hand to a minimum.
Where the irregular lead must be made
from entire weakness, we much prefer
the lead of a trump; the possible loss
from a failure to catch the honor
turned is apt to be offset by throwing
the lead up to partner, or by his max
have been chosen had the trump not
been led, which would have been sac
rificed by the irregular lead.
The Philadelphia Telegraph suggests
an extension Of the principle so as to
make it Of service in cases where the
original lead is from high card COM
binations;
I'VE suggest to our readers possible i'm
rrovement in this particular. Our idea Is
that when an honor is turned the lead OF
queen or jack should be a command to
lead trumps through the honor. This can be
easily accomplished by varying the following
leads when it is not the desire OF the leader
that his partner should lead trump.
"Instead of queer, from combinations OF hYe
cards with king, lead the king, temporarily
not showing the number lead king also
from king queen, jack, and more than one
other.
'sUnder this system the lead of queen OF
Jack from any combination is call ipso
facto, and the old rule applies to any other
irregular lead. The only possible objection
is that the partner cannot, when an honor is
turned, get much information from a king
lead, as it may be from variety OF COM
binations and does not show number. On
the other hand. it seems probable that the
imperative trump information more than off
sets this. The idea has not yet been put in
on the subject are available.
We offer the suggestion to our readers with
the thought that it is well worthy Of care
ful consideration
We agree that the above suggestion is
worthy of careful consideration, but question
whether the value Of the proposed play
be finally determined without the application
of practical statistics. The chief objection
TO the play is fairly stated by the Telegraph.
We believe the modern American high card
leads to show number to be of very great
value; the Information conveyed by a lead of
Jack, queen, or king is extremely valuable
to q player who endeavors to count the
hands, to fix the position of the unplayed
cards in the different hands from his observa-
tion and inferences from those that have
been played. We question very seriously
whether the advantages to be gained by in
formation of trump strength trump weak
ness warrant the entire abandonment of the
American high card leads in cases where an
honor is turned.
The following instances occur to us as more
direct examples of possible losses from the
proposed play: An honor is turned and the
leader opens with king of a plain suit; his
partner has ace and one small as he cannot
tell whether the lead is from king, queen and
two or more small from king, queen,
jack and more small, he will not play
his ace third hand, and will thereby block
his partners suit If the lead is from the
king, queen, jack combination. Partner may
be strong enough in trumps to exhaust them,
but he cannot tell that the suit is establish
ed and will not win the trick. So with ace
and others of the suit and trump strength, he
would be warranted in winning the jack led
to lead trumps, but would be compelled to
pass the king led to probable loss by con-
tlnuation of the suit and ruff by the op-
ponents. There are hands, no doubt where
the immediate demand for trump lead will
be of great value, but our experience has
been that in the great majority of cases the
command to lead trumps can be made later;
the ordinary signal the play of a high
card, the refusal to trump a doubtful trick,
the fall of the cards enabling partner to count
strong trumps in the leaders, hand these
things will be taken by good partner as
signifying a desire for a trump lead. On
the whole, therefore we cannot give our ap
pIoval of the new play.
II any change is advisable, we would sug
gest a reversal of the Telegraphs proposed
call: Let the lead of king be call for trumps
when an honor is turned, and let queen be
led from combinations of king, queen and
others and jack from king, queen Jack and
one or more others whenever 1t is not desired
to call for lead through the honor. The
system Of American leads will be less inter-
fered with by this line of play for the reason
that hands containing trump strength, an
honor turned, and suits of five or more cards
with the combinations above mentioned are