The sun., 1897-04-25
AROUND THE WHIST TABLE
SUCCESS OF THE WOMEN'S WHIST
CONGRESS ASSURED.
Largo Entries for tho Principal Events
a women'a whist Ciub IN New Work

Largo Entries for the Principal Events
a wornen'a whist club IN New Work
City Tho Modern Long suit Gnmc.
II would not be at all surprising II tho
women's Whist Congress In Philadelphia this
week we're TO exceed In attendance and cnthn-
siasm any yet held by the men. At Manhattan
Beach there wero only twenty-five entries in
tho open contest for progressive fours, and
twenty.three in the A. w. l.. fours, whereas tho
women have already received about 100 entries
for the principal contests, and tho lists do not
close until April %.
The reasons for the success which appears TO
he attending tho women's movement are not far
TO seek, They have moro leisure than the men,
and II is not such serious matter for them TO
give two or three consecutive days TO matter
Of this kind, even at some distance from home'
Then. ngain. this congress has been well man
aged well known and influential women being
at the head OF It and all tho plans being care
full thought out in advance. 1t was certainly
great stroke OF diplomacy to arrange Tor the
men md women to play together in ono OF the
matches. and the event will probably call out
every male whist player in Philadelphia anu
the mn jority OF those in Wilmington and Boltl-
more, with n goodly sprlGkling from Washing
ton New York, and Brooklyn
Mrs Andrews regrets to find New York city
is not better represented in the way of womcn's
whist clubs, and hopes that the recent and rapid
advance made by tho mems clubs may bc tho
forcrunner Of a similar movement among tao
women players. most Of whom now have to 40
10 the Gcrmania in Brooklyn for their compass
whist practice That there are n great many
strong players among tho New York women is
unquestioned, but they do not seem to get to-
gethcr as they do In other cities In Boston. for
instance. the daily reports OF the whist doings
among the womcn's clubs fill half n column OF
the Boston Herald. Two OF our whist columns
are edited by New York women, and we have
several noted teachers why not a New York
women's whist club. with a typical New York
delegation at the women's congress on April 27l
MODERN LoNG.suIrIsM.
It Is not so many moons since the whist editors
OF this country, almost without exception. were
bowling against the so-callcd short-suit game.
and doing everything in their power to bclittle
the facts presented in its favor by THE Sun If
any person possessed of file OF whist clippings
for April, 1896. will compare them with those he
cuts from the same papers to-day he cannot fail
to be struck by the fact that it is no longer an
appeal to tho whist players of the country to
stick to the long-suit game, but an endeavor to
guide them to judicous selection OF the
best elements of the common-sense systems,
with view to obtaining the most effective mix
tur," for tournament play. Here is the captain
OF tho Albany team, supposed to be n dyed.in-
the-wool long.suiter. giving in the albany
Journal brief synopsis Of the style Of game
adopted by the Boston Duplicate Whist Club.
which gave Albany one of the hardest fights
they have had for many day. As an outline OF
what is now called long-suit play 1t is very in
teresting reading. Here it Is:
THE system used by the Boston Duplicate
ar Cluh IL no most rational NJ nDy Of tho
called mixed systems that we have yet seen.
Briefly 1t is as follows: Open originally from long
est or best suit. Having honors in sequence, fol-
low American leads, except from ueen, jack ten
and others lead ten, and lead king in all cases
where the American leads call for queen. Use
queen as STRENGTHENING card, or to show trump
strength. w hen suit is headed by a card smaller
than the nine. lead top of suit. From king. jack.
ten and others lead fourth best. Do not open
STRENGTHENING card which can be led. With king.
jack, nine. eight, six, seven. or similar suits
reverse discard to show suit you wish led. In
trumps from queen: jack. ten, and others lead
top Of suit, otherwise follow American leads
Echo with three trumps on partners end. Never
fnesse on partners trump lead.
Those rules. with the exception of the dis
queen and he play Of small card suits. do not not
differ essentially S from the long-sut game as
II the last paragraph had not been written by
the captain Of the Albany team himself, its cor
rectness might well be doubted. What is this
beaded by single honors Il you, have a good
why, It is the long.suit game, as understood to-
day; and as played by the team that has been
held up to the admiration of the whist world as
the good old tried and true long-suit game. In
Ingsh II whist
come the fiatness of the taste OF the old and
stagnant long-suit water. That is what they
The champion Hamilton team. to whom every
thing connected with short suits was like red
Hss to s1 s year ag2 nov openly glory in
ing" and in the Philadelphia Telegraph the star
player of the team points with pride to the fact
that took the trophy away from Albany, and
that held it against Baltimore.
have all done the same thing: they have studied
and applied them to the hands that they fitted.
the short suit itself Without any principles, and
have h applied 1t to every hand they picked up:
opinion as to the true merits Of leading short
spits and supporting cards. The mixers"
oushy the vSu1 @ Of the sGf
tive Those Who Know little more Of the stir4 Shor
the difference in the way the system
WOrkb DOneIllncS Iney Will get u run OF
hands In which the lead from the shortest and
weakest suit will result in large gains, and then
again they will get hands which seem to go all
to pieces, the loss or gain in both cases being
due entirely to the accidental distribution Of
the cards, no Judgment haying been used in
selecting the hands from which the short suits
were opened. This is not good whist. much less
common sense, and players must know some
thing more than the opening lead to play tho
Bhortsuit game successfully.
THE Sun has explained from time to time
several common-sense systems. but the best sys-
tenn. or the hest mixture. has evidently not yet
been determined. Continual experiment and
research Is bringing out new facts every day
but the exact theory which fits the greatest
number of these facts has not yet been formu-
lated. In this lies the advantage of the old
game; its principles have been formulated with
great exactness, SO that brains are quite unnec-
essary to play 1t, book knowledge and memory
being tho essentials for success.
At present there are two entirely different
systems OF common-sense whist in the field and
they may be roughly distinguished as those in
which you attend to your own business and
those In which you ask your partner to attend
to It for you. They are Technically known as
"the top Of nothing" and the invitation game" +"
and both were explained in The Sun in the jan
uary articles
The invitation game proceeds on the principle
that with such general strength as to Justify