The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-27
AROUND THE WHIST TABLE.
PRoaREss or THE INTERoITT TOUR
~ NAMENT DER WY HERE.
new seuas Out-eryTewn Teams Used 70 Prae-
tce-La1 methods Followed IN This CITY
TITO Play eT Three Hands-Onr Fcrcep-
tier P~robtem-Club Notes nnd News.

M0N bsIB ANSNAN w.
ttee-Lax methods Followed IN THIS city
The Play or Three Hnnda-OuF rercep-
tien Notes ana News.
The intercity tournament which is now in
progress In this city Is a great educator and IL
irving our local players some valuable oppor-
tunities for study and practice. The first two
rounds were sufficient to convince most of those
who wero new in match playing that tho
methods Of compass whist would not servo, and
that instead Of taking chances at every oppor'
unity, in order to get n big plus, 1t was much
better to play e conservative game, avoiding
losses rather than searching for gains.
Under the system OF scoring adopted. each
hand constitutes a match between two teams
OF four, and the loss of q single trick on either
side usually means the loss OF the match with
that particular club. While q good many
tricks may be lost by bad openings. that fault Is
daily becoming rarer, because the common.
sense methods of opening hands are now pretty
generally understood and followed. Players OF
the 6rst class, like Elweli, never fall into tho
error Of the confirmed long suffers, which Is In
opening plain suits without an honor In them;
neither do thoy mako the mistake so common
TO would.b be short.suiters, which is In opening
weak three.card suits not headed by one or two
supporting cards. such as iack.ten or feminine.
Just as nothing is so discouraging to the part
ner of the lonR.sniter rs to white away ata
-fve.card suit which is absolutely worthless and
cannot be brought in except by a miracle. so
nothing Is so disheartening to the short.suiter as
to find his partner has opened n suit Of three
cards. seven or eight high, which he can neither
support nor ruff.
While n knowledge OF common.sensc open
ings no longer furnishes an exclusive picnic
ground for those who know and use them.
ignorance OF common.sense endings is still the
graveyard for the great majority of tho tricks
that are lost in match play. Few persons realize
the amount of attention necessary il order to
arrive at a correct estimate of the strength and
purpose Of an adversary. and the players who
have carefully followed the development of the
hand mp to n certain stage are the ones that
will get the most out Of it in the end, let the
opening be what it may, because they know
pretty accurately the forces against which they
are contonding and can see pretty clearly the
weak spots in the armor of their ndversaries.
y The teams that make the best showing in the
big tournaments are made up of careful, ana.
lytical players. who do not take the wrong road
at critical points and do not venture on short
cuts through unknown territory. The de"clop-
.ment Of such n team Is Il matter OF education.
and many systems of training have been tried
with a view TO getting the best results from the
material at hand.
The Minneapolis team used to get together
in the top story of a big Office building and dis
cuss situations until the minds Of the four
men who were to play together acted as one.
The Hamiltons used to have single-taolc prac-
tice games In which the play of any member OF
the team was open to criticism. an adverse
verdict by the majority Of the others carrying
with 1t q fine of % cents. The American Whist
Club OF Boston used to provide the players with
blanks. on which they were required to write
their opinions Of the positions of the remaining
trunips and master cards after eight or nine
tricks had been played. So useful was this sys-
tenn OF training that it was found possible for
experts like Becker to place about 30 per cent.
Of the cards correctly. Tho Howell Club Of
Boston gives each player a slip, on which he
records the order in which he has played his
thirteen cards. and a committee afterward goes
over these records and criticiscs them, charging
the players with palpable errors. There are
Ave teams in training, and the individuals max
ing the fewest errors are gradually promoted
to the first team, their positions being secure
only so long as they continue to make fewer
errors than the players on the other teams.
So far as II Sun is aware. no such methodi-
cal system has lately been tried in New York,
and the result Is that we have no team OF four
players all capable Of acting as one mimi, and
all to be depended on to do the same thing UNI
der the same circumstances. Tho success or the
old Manhattan team was largely due to their
regular practice games in the afternoons.
which led to their confidence In one another's
play, and it was only when one Of them made
some unreasonable departure from the line of
tactics agreed upon that they lost tricks. Most
of the teams In the intercity tournament have
been hastily thrown together, and few of them
are without one or two lame ducks" They do
not practice between matches, and their sue
cess often depends on the combination of part
ners in a certain round, This is invariably O
mark of weakness in a team. for it should be
able to get equally good results out of any com.
bination. II all four have been judiciously Sc.
lected and equally well trained.
There are. OF course. mental differences in
players. and there arc hands which suit them.
Some hands are better suited to careful play
ers, and others to the dashing and brilliant
sort. but they will even up In the course of a
long match. 1t sometimes happens that the
two sides OF the same hand will suit different
styles OF play, and II the conservative end in
played with Judgment and tho dashing end with
courage, great gains will usually result.
Here Is an example OF just such a hand, on
which the Whist Club CT New York made its
greatest gain in the third round of the tourna-
ment in question. This club is now in the
having to its credit IL matches out of "a. 81
tricks above the average, and an individual
score OF % plus.
The follc wing hand was No. 4 en- Feb. 10.
Y-Z's cards were held by Faber and Elwell,
and their victims were team b of the Knick.
erbockers. supposed to be the most radical short
ON the original by departing from their system
and making a very bad long-suit opening. and
two more on the everyday by trying for too
much in attempting to drop the trumps togeth-
er. n dealt and turned the heart 8.
TRICK.