The sun., 1897-08-22
AROUND DTHE WHIST TABLE.
CoMMoN SENSE PLAY AND ITs
.tDVANI.A GES.


Applied to tho Game-As Auxiliary
GO . systern-The Player Probation
some Illustrations - ON Dehuito Systems.
What Is common sense In whisti Some per-
sons speak OF 1t as II 1t were system like Amor
ican leads others as IL It wero sort Of letter OF
marquo, turning the player Into pirate or
guerrilla. Howell says II 10 "any old thing for
a starter" Tho poetess Of tho long-suiters at
tempts to define 1t. and in SO doing elves
theory of leads and plays which betrays the
poetic fancy in all Its pristine Vigor. AWestorn
writer SAYS It 10 = mixture of cross runs, false
cards, and sub.sneaks.
Common sense in whist Is none Of those things.
1t is simply q judlcious use of knowledge Of
probabilities as applied TO whist, and tho right
of private Judgment as expressed In play. Tho
common. sense idea may DO used In connection
with any system, as suggested by Howell and
will act chiefly as q corrective or governor to
prevent the player from falling into errors while
following out q system OF tactics which may DO
sound in Its general principles, but defective
under certain conditions.
A common sense player invariably adopts tho
long.suit theory as the foundation Of his gamc.
but when he gets hand which his judgment and
experience tells him is not suited to that style
of opening, he will drop the long-suit idea for
the time being. To distinguish him from tho
one who follows the theory without any exercise
OF Judgment he 10 called n short suffer-" be-
cause he sometimes lends from short suit,
while tho other never does. When common.
sense player gets hands that he thinks will
yield profit on tho long.suit opening. he will
play them that way; but when he gets hand
that he knows will probably involve n loss of
tricks II opened "long." he drops that theory.
BY cutting short his losses and letting
his profits run OH in this manner he
boa ha pafa fdn nf he mn rlnf tha
measure OF his success depending on pre-
vious training and good Judgment. II he
has no Judgment, and knows nothing Of whist
probabilities. he will probably cut short his
profits and make his losses larger, and in time
he will become shot" player, who is always
looking for squirrels, and who hopes to gain
tricks by taking chances that the odds are to
against. II he only knew it. For every time that
he gains a trick he loses six In his unsuccessful
attempts. Then he blames the system" Then
he say to himself: "Long-suit theories are best
after ALL" This is what poets do. They have
no common sense. and every time they try to
play hand on common sense principles they
make mess of It, and then they write up tho
system /" in the paper, just to show real COM
mon sense players that they don't know what
they are writing about.
Ifa person has not studied the sub Ject of whist
probabilities very carefully, and has not suffi-
cient judgment to know good opportunity from
a wildcat speculation, he will do better to stick
to some definite system OF play until he gets tho
necessary experience; for. while 1t may lose
| tricks for him occasionally. it will yield much
better results in the long run than he obtain
by mcddling with a game for which he
has not been properly trained. 1t has been
! pointed out repeatedly by writers on whist,
especially by Clay. that it takes time to develop
| the whist player, and that he must spend n GER
| tain period in playing like machine. without
| much exercise OF judgment. But attention has
also been called to re fact that this close adher
| ence to n system is Il badge of immaturity; 1t
is a confession Of incompetence; 1t is tacit ad.
mission that the player is still in the ranks,
blindly following an authority" or leader. b c.
cause he has not sufficient ability to plan his
own campaign.
This period Of probation Is absolutely neces.
| sary TO all whist players. They must first learn
| to play according to some simple rules SO ar.
ranged TINT as little as possible, will be LETT to
second hand low. is better than nothing TO be.
| gin with. Even American leads AMI pain-suit
ot nGrs OF
which will eventually carry him beyond such
things The great trouble. as pointed out by
| Mossop thirty years ngo. Ia that the player
breaks down in the process. and gets SO depend
cnt on his systems that he cannot trust hiInsel!
without them. He IS like 10y that has learned
| dread of deep water than he when tho artificial
has learned to depend for or his intcrenccs ] on Ia
| complicated system OF conventions gets so ac
customcd TO them that he cannot trust his juds
| mcnt apart from them and loses the tineness oil
, perception which is essential to player OF the
first class: Tho common sense may bc there. but
he is afraid to use 1t; the chance may be in his
favor. but he does not know the fraction OF prob
ability and is afraid TO- risk it.
definite system that people seem to expect IT.
and the moment you speak OF exceptional case:
or hands. they want rule formulated to cover
them. They want one system picked out as the
best and all Others condemned. forgetting tha
suited 70 the slow mental processes OF ono play
er would drive another crazy. Imagine Hawkins
or llcnriqucs going through tho ppcountinG
processes OF intermediate trumpshowinK loads
that ditferen late between suits queen high com
bincd with three small trumus. and suits kins
high with three trumps to an honor! Tn,
players who use such systems have to lay theii
cards down on the table and bury their faces ID
their hands. After two or three minutes matur,
delibcraton they misplace the last trump and thu
command Of spades. ami drop trick or two, al
the solution to the perception problem published q
in this issue; Couimon-scnse players like Hen
riqucs see through situations like a flash, and
tion. The object and the means OF attaining to /
aI are everything; As . an example Of this. take "
him. He sees a chance that may result In - /
risks the loss OF a card which no knows is worti
Oh az average just four-tenths Of q trick. Cal
rGaus I'd the se "ys wS G AND
tell him the Odds for against success: but cal
you give him tho mind to see his oppori unityf
Many persons have found fault with THE SU n
for giving tho outlines of different systems o
play at various times, and they seem 10 think /
would b. better to have one system selected ant
TO stick TO H. THE Sun has stat cd repea tedly tina
y does not ndorse any OF these systems. bu
simply gives them as examples OF certain style
Of play. at tho same time pointing out the posi-
lions In which the system should have been de
parted from. and common sense should hav
, | hun nd fnri In
stance. It will be stated that long Rsuitcr woul
40 80 and so. or that a short-suitcr would pla
thus. or an invitation player would ope
this way, People seem to think some System O
play should bo given which would be absolute
the best for all hands and would stand all mar
ner Of tests II that could be done every piaye
would adopt 1t at once, and tho interest In whis
would soon die out Like chess, whist owe
much OF its vitality TO the fact that tho hes
theory OF play has not yet boen discovered. L
chess the most carefully studied openings q
me most brilliant masters OF the game are cor
tinually being proved defective Just as 4
whist the most promising conventionalities ar
! repeatedly being found to be tlck.iosers.
TIIE Dr. h.a han,, HKhf t,r 10 ~,