Evening star., 1897-07-26
AMONG THE WHIST. PLAYERS

Foster, who made a remarkable showing
in the progressive games of pairs and
fours, is out with new edition Of Hoyle
This book bristles through with the in
cisive, trenchant style of this polished
writer. and. although he devotes only four
teen lines to short suit whist, 1t Is replete
with common sense suggestions. His re-
view Of HowelIs game, his history of
bridge whist (Which is becoming very pop
ular at all clubs) and all other games are
in an attractive STYLE and will not weary
the reader like an ordinary text book, and
will be in the possession of every club and
sporting editor in the United States.
The suggestions to beginners are well
| worth remembering. do not attempt to
cover all the ground at once" "One thing
at time "All things in succession
"One must master the scales before one
can produce the melody" First under
| stand the object and the fundamental
| whist player is usually developed gradually.
II he posses the faculty of paying close
attention to the game during play. nothing
should prevent his rapid progress At first
he may care little or nothing for book
whist, but after some experience with book
players he Is In danger of the other ex-
| treme. Having passed that stage his next
step Is to invent some system Of his own
and to experiment with every hand, to
think out the problems for himself, noting
the peculiar play of every strong player
enabling him to draw deductions from the
same and by contact with the strongest
players perfect his own game"
The first great fault to overcome with
beginners is their timidity about overtak-
ing their partners tricks, and, If necessary
exhausting trumps.
Often, with strength in trumps and not
wishing to ruff, strong suit is discarded
Tor fear OF leaving only one guard to
king. deceiving the partner as to the strong
suits on account of not wishing to play
second hand with king and one guard. and
players as to this play. The old axiom
that used to be in vogue with common
sense players holding king or queen with
one guard, being second hand, king ever
queen never" is not used now. In trumps
King Is always played second hand, unless
the trump is led in response to a CALL or
the ace Is turned on your left. The ten
dency OF expert players to lead away from
ace renders it necessary to second hand to
play the king on first round. Either in
trumps or suits on a regular opening play
KING on a forced opening; that is. when
two rounds of the suit are held and a fear
is felt that the third round will not live
and new suit is opened. This play has
been discussed more than any other in
whist, and your experience must be your
guide. II you are playing with timid play
ers, who are always afraid of losing their
aces and always lead them, the play is
obvious. 1t would not do playing against
snort suffers, unless covering queen or
jack.
One of the most pleasant features of the
recent whist congress was the opportunity
Tor play given the executive committee.
Never before have they had such chances
to personally participate in the enjoyment
they have made for the whist world.
The amount of work that Mandell Tor
mey. Elliott, Parker, Barney, Haigh,
Weems, Schwartz and a score Of others
have done for the success Of these annual
meetings shows that they must be in
spired by the love Of the game
The whist rooms of the C. A. c. have
been crowded every night recently, and
enlivened by the presence of Charley Wat
son of the New York club several evenings.
There are many new players entering the
lists for whist honors
Many Of the lady whisters are out of
the city, Mrs. Polk Buell.. Mrs. Carpenter
and Mrs. Walls being at Capon Springs.
The latter will coach three classes during
her sojourn at the springs.
The c. Bi. c. had a game recently in
which one Of the hands had some remark
able features, one in which the very bad
finesse of the queen of diamonds lost four
tricks. The hand is given below, as an
example of how appalling the disaster may
be Of taking finesse where it is only pos
sible to gain one trick and a chance OF
losing four. AS usual in those plays. the
flnesse lost four tricks. The queen of dia-
monds should have been discarded instead
n tha fyxyn Of