Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-03-13
HOWELL LESSON ON WHIST,
Proper Opening of Plain Suits, Ace
and Four Small Cards.
The Rotary Discard-An Explana-
ton Of it and Other Discards by
Foster - An Illustrated Hand
Showing Value of the Discard.

abused SUBJECTS OF discussion in regard
10 the original leads at whist is the
proper opening from plain suit con-
sistlng of the ace and four small cards
some authorities believe that the
fourth best is the correct card to
lead irrespectively of the rest of the
hand. Others think that sometimes
fhe fourth best and sometimes the ace
is the most advantageous initiative.
accOrding to the trump and re-eniry
strength accompanying the long SUIT.
Sull others consider the ace always the
best opening. Such is the view of the
old fashioned "Cavendish" long SUIT
ers. In the present stage of whist
dCvelopment, opinions being widely
different and none altogether stable.
any player is always more or less in
doubt whether he should lead the ace
OF the fourth best from given hand
unless he does one or the other thing
invariably as a rule, without any re
gard whatever to the general character
pf the cards.
few days ago | read a carefully
studied article upon the lead from the
ace and four small The writer was
1ne Of the foremost opponents of the
routine, long suit game. He laid
down a series of rules-perhaps he
would consider them principles-and
when he had got through he had real
ly left his readers to exercise their
own sweet discretion
The modern common sense author
lues leave their disciples in no such
condition of perplexity. They declare
nat a plain suit, consisting of the ace
and four other cards, not including
the king, is a bad suit to open any
how, and it should be avoided if pos
5iblc. 1t is a maxim, Don't open a
suit of ace and four small if you can
help it.
And what is the alternative? A
short suffer replies: IF your long
slit is sufficiently backed by trump
and re-entry strength, lead trumps. If
not lead supporting card from a
short suit if you can. If you have
neither the courage to lead trumps
nor the short suit supporting card, let
go the ace of your five card suit and
run"
This is a very simple matter The
gisL of it is that you should not start
your aces and four small suit unless it
is the last thing to be considered from
lead the ace.
To this general advice there is only
one exception, and it is rarely met.
If together with your long suit you
have four trumps exactly and no
means of re-entry in another plain
suit, you may take the chance of lead
ing the lowest card of your long suit
as an Invitation" but you should
oho bn
suit is a good one, having high card
OF two next to the ace. Then you are
gambling on the possibility Of great
game.
It is a matter of luck, after all. If
you lead the ace first and then small
one, by giving up the command of the
suit at the start you may lose all op-
portunity of bringing it in afterward.
If you open the suit with small card.
there is dangerous probability Of
carrying home" your ace. [ have
had a great deal to say about luck at
duplicate whist, and | think this ele-
ment enters perhaps more largely into
the ace or fourth best question than
into any other single disputed point
of the openings. Perhaps | am biased
by my own experience. 1t generally
happens with me that il [ lead the
small card I wish / hadn't, because my
ace goes to seed, and if 1 lead the ace
I'm sorry, because my small cards I'M
necessarily fatten the adversarles
later Perhaps [ say, | am biased by
experience. Such, however, my ex-
perience really is, and have as much
reason to think it guide to princi-
pies Of play as the Minneapolis play
ers. for instance, have to adopt the
fourth best lead because they have had
good luck with it, or as the pupils of
Bouve have to lead the ace almost in
variably because that practice has
gained tricks for them.
It is really toss up, one way or the
other. which shall be the more adj
yantageous-the ace or the fourth
best lead.
Why if you have an open sea before
YOU and a Scylla and Charybdis star
ing you in the face, should you not
elect to 90 outside rather than be-
tween them? Pardon the classical al
fusion. For the ancient mariner there
was not a great deal of choice, but in
whist there is a world of room, and
the short suffers were the Columbuses
Who discovered it.
There are other plain suit combina-
tons besides that of the ace and four
small which the common sense, or
short suit player, avoids, not only with
Judgment, but with repugnance
Among them are the king, queen and
small cards and all suits headed by the
major or minor tenace. About the
kmgqueen combination the long suit
authorities have little to say, but the
best long suit players vary in their
practice. Some of them open such a
suit with the king or queen, according
TO number, and others start with,
small card. They are chary, too, and
arg becoming more and more chary
every day, about the opening of ten
ace suits. No such worry and ankle
ny with regard to the outcome attend
the practice of the short suffer. Unless
he feels the necessity of running FOR
his dear life with his king-aueen or
tenace suit he does not touch it, but II
ne has not strength enough TO LEAD
Uumps he starts a weak suit ana
waits for an advantageous develop
nent Of his strong one. | have no pa
Uence for those writer's who recognize
l1aL such and such plain suit combl-
Aallon is a dangerous one to open IN
amy manner, but who still discourse
pfollXly and Indefinitely upon the adj
.a4iaSes of this manner or the other.