The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-13
AROUND THE WHIST TABLE
ryr 1oNG-SUITERs AND THE sB0RT-
,yITEES At 1T ALL OYER AGAIN.
v,,,r Dineronces Will Not Dews-Aua Thsy
nor,t want Them To. Either-Play ana

-..,. o,neronces VIII Not They
nor,t want Them To. Either-Plny aua
oycrpi.y or Four Hrands-A Fresien.
N spito OF all evidence to tho contrary, the
,.nr.suiters are still insisting that the lead Of q
Nsort suit will establish that suit In tho hands
=, tho adversary nine times out OF ten. They
IN hind to the fact that II ono lead will do 80
-. The cards must have been so distributed
A., the suit was already solid against the
sn,r,r. and that he did nothing that would
S,pc II moro so except what lie done by q long.
.,I,er every time he leads a weak four-card suit
.nd Kills the only honor In his partners hand.
Tho claim Is made that IT, Is h great advantage
tor n player with q good suit to get into the lead
9TH tho suit itself before having to sacrifice
NV n, his cards OF re.ontry. Is It not equally an
advantage 10 get in with such q suit after hav-
ing killed tho only good caro- In that suit that
vas out against himl
A careful examination of the statements re-
,,n,ly made In various long-suit organs will
how that the average loss on hands from which
,hor, suits are led is about 2ia tricks. tho maxi
,o,n, being about 7, and the smallest possible
heinp /. They will not admit anything less than
. trick. and claim that trick every time tho
third hand holds an honor in the suit led, with
mt waiting to see whether or not that card
.ould have won a trick, no matter what suit
was opened.
This ia very sad, and It is certainly o remarka-
bs instance Of the weakness Of human nature
In p~ersisting in error. after so many columns Of
rood aivicc have been given, warning the short
miters Of their folly. Somehow or other they
don't sen these dreadful losses in actual play.
and can usually trace such losses as do occur to
ante other causes than tho opening. Most
careful players can jot down on the margin Of
thar scors cards just where tho tricks are lost,
and how. An examination Of this record will
Generally show that the cold tricks that have
hs,n dropped are not to DO charged to bad
o~nen,pRs, but to careless combinations or end
ipgs, most Of which can be traced to hasty play
and might have been easily avoided. even by the
poor short.suiters.
OF course there are such things 40 pushing n
have asked IL the first hand given last Sunday,
IN which z leads from a two-oard suit, 10 not q
case OF that kind. The general opinion seems to
be that such q lead might do for q flyer in q COM
pass game, but would hardly do in an important
match. Well. here is a hand from the last
round OF tho i~ntercity tournament. ono
Of the most important matches that has
been played in this neighborhood for some
time, in which o player makes Almost
exactly tho same lead. opening o suit of two
small cards, although holding two suits with
two or three honors In each, and only one trump.
Tho result In this case was that tho short-suit
lead made the top score on this deal. and secured
four or rve tricks moro than was made ct any
other table, and three more than tho two crack
players from the New York Club got out of 1t.
Zdealt andIturned the heart 10: