The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-26
AROUND THE WHIST TABLE.
II PoErEsS OF THE LoNG-sU1rERs
BRELK6 FORTH.

-
Some sr Her Advice In the Eisht er Common
senso-ssverai Put-in-Bay Plays AnaIyrea-
The Invitation Game-An upcossistoncy In
Trump.-Ths sun Prsbiemv-Theip Points.
Tho ~long-suit whist writer's throughout the
country have boen making great capital out OF
tine alleged fact that all the teams engaged in
tn, championship contests at Put-in-Bny
played the strict long-suit game" and that
the invitation game, top-of-nothinr, common.
sense, and short suits were confined exclusively
to the OMEN events. They Kraciously concodo
the fact that tho avowed short-suiters made a
pretty clean sweep of the open events, but at
tempt to belittlo this by contendinR that all tho
truly great play was In the championships, and
that there it was all strict long suits.
There are sc, erRl facts that do not quite agrco
with this statement. BouvS, for instance, In
the Boston Transcript, Is lamenting the fact
that the practice OF leading small cards In plain
suits to show general strength and a desire to
have trumps out was carried TO absurd eE.
tremcs at tho congress-" As he played in the
championship events, 1t must be supposed that
his remarks apply to those contests, and that he
recognized the spread of tho invitation game as
adtstinct departure from the principles OF strict
long.suitism. II not, THE Sun would lite to
know what these Invitation players led when
they did not want to show strength or to invite
atrump lead. They certainly could not have
led small cards from their long suits, as that
would have been an invitations; 80 they must
have led supporting cards, Intermediates. or the
top OF nothing. You cannot play the invitation
game with one hand and strict long suits with
the next. The lead of a mall card must mean
the same thing all the time or never.
The best way to get at the present condition of
strict long.suitism is probably to take its most
conservative exponents, and see what they say.
1ha ,,natnca pf tha lnp-a,ttnrn rh... -.t,-
are devoted exclusively to tho exploitation Of
her complete ignorance of the theory and princi.
Piles OF common sense whist, and to tho display
OF her preludices against short-suitism. is out
with io Snot fnr piece 4 Of doggerei containing full d.
wish to be kept In tho true long-suit path.
When put into English, the sentiments OK.
pressed in her latest verses are as follows:
With four trumps and three OF zach plain suit
lead the top Of any plain suit not containing
the queen u ein Should hidYb% be i ed II Yqt tSa plain ial t suits s@ eonl
tain tenaces lead trgmps In preference to open
not containing an honor lead the top. but II the
best card Is not better than a seven open one OF
yUfIT s abort to suits ,cro with !, six six small cards in a
and one small in preference. This is such a
surprising statement and such q fat contradio-
suit game that THE Sun may DO mistaken In
its translation OF the language. which is a. fol.
The best Of two as high as queen Is right"
The better OF two 10 probably what is meant;
out now TWO CArub IN one suit can DO as high
as queen" but no higher, it 10 hard to say.
The fourth stanza will provo a revelation to
modern players, as 1t announces an entirely new
way OF showing partner that you hold "A worth
less hand in plain suits. The lead of O small
trump from four. Ave, or six of them Is q signal
to partner that you have no good plain suit In
your hand. There is no installing The language
In this case. Compare 1t with tho next verso:
With seven small trumps lead a sneak to in.
wife u run. Your partner will read that your
strength in trumps 10 great" and may make
a1v use he pleases of the knowledge so ac-
CURED. This is getting 1t down to a very fine
no h,nE in plain suits; with seven, lead o sneak.
Il ii very vident from the foregoing that the
p9ttrss is no longer a long-suiter. and as she is
no - Short-suiter, either, she must be q Door
si!'cr. The earliest description OF poor suiters
30 ;RT discovered Is in "Coriolanua." when the
5: onl citizen gives q description of their strong
point, which may account for their weak poetry.
That The invitation game was a potent factor
- Plu.in-Bay cannot be denied. and so M OF the
hhC ;cst swings were traceable to Its use. THE
syn is Indebted to its correspondents for two o.
swing OF six tricks and the other OF seven. In
nac case the invitation consisted In leading the
acc. from a suit OF A. q. J, s, 6. 8, 3, 9, and in
the other tho deuce was LED from a suit OF A, K,
j. 10, !. =. That such leads should be made In
- championship match marks a great change In
The .nctho ; OF u year ago. for such tactics were
nrTcr thought OF until suggested by THE Sun.
although many writer's have since taken up the
en- and Incorporated 1t in their more recent
publications.
Here arc the hands. In the FIRST Alb ART
par. ncrs AGAINST ". z dealt and turned the
he. /. J. The underlined caro- wins tho trick
an ] ~ card unler IL is the next one led.